D.A. Seeks $1 Hike in Auto Registration Fee : Law enforcement: The $500,000 a year would be used to fight car theft and offset funding cuts in Michael D. Bradbury’s department.

Ventura County car owners would pay an extra $1 in their registration fee to fund a team of lawyers to prosecute car thieves under a plan unveiled Thursday by Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

Bradbury said the $500,000 raised annually by the added levy would also help offset budget cuts proposed for his department.

The Board of Supervisors has increased the car registration fee twice in the past eight months, raising it from $24 to $28. Those increases will pay for several anti-smog programs operated by the county’s Air Pollution Control District.

Bradbury said the additional $1 is needed to help offset proposed budget cuts that would force him to eliminate nine prosecutors and two assistants. Three other attorneys may be laid off because state funding for a program to prosecute career criminals has run out, he said.

“The message from the supervisors has always been that if you can find revenue, use it,” he said.

The supervisors, who have recently been at odds with Bradbury over budget cuts, will consider his recommendation Tuesday. Last year, they criticized him for being over budget by $344,600 at a time when other departments had cut costs by about 6%.

If adopted, the fee would take effect in December.

A majority of the supervisors were undecided about the idea Thursday.

Supervisor John K. Flynn, who voted against the last two registration fee increases, said he has not made a decision on Bradbury’s proposal.

But he added that he is going to give the measure serious consideration.

“We should keep all our options open,” he said.

Supervisor Susan K. Lacey said Thursday that she had not studied the proposal and would wait until she gets some public reaction before making a decision.

Supervisor Vicky Howard also said she had not decided how to vote but added that she is concerned that residents may not support further fee increases. “It seems that every time we turn around we are finding new items to add fees on,” she said.

The supervisors tentatively approved a plan last week that called for 5% budget cuts in each department to erase a projected $13-million deficit in the fiscal year that began this month.

The 5% cut would amount to a reduction of $476,000 for Bradbury’s prosecution unit. He has said such cuts would jeopardize public safety by forcing him to slash his misdemeanor prosecution unit by about half.

The additional $1 car registration fee would apply to the 537,000 registered vehicles in Ventura County. After the Department of Motor Vehicles subtracts collection costs, the new charge would generate about $500,000, Bradbury said.

A law drafted by state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita) and adopted last year gives county supervisors the authority to impose the additional registration fee. However, the law expires Jan. 1, 1996.

Bradbury said that, according to the law, he can spend half the money to fund three attorneys and two investigators to prosecute car thieves and the other half on other staffing needs.

With about $200,000 in voluntary salary savings, Bradbury said his department may be able to completely offset the proposed 5% cuts. But he said the money raised by the car registration fee would not offset the loss of state funds for the career criminal prosecution program.

The car-theft prosecution team would also provide an invaluable service, he said.

In a recent eight-year period, the number of reported car thefts in Ventura County has increased by more than 40%, from 1,661 in 1982 to 2,363 in 1990, according to a district attorney’s report.

“These alarming statistics demonstrate that a growing problem exists within Ventura County concerning vehicle thefts,” Bradbury said in the report.

From 1989 to 1990, reported car thefts in Ventura County increased by 15%, compared with a statewide increase of 9%, the report says.