COUNTYWIDE : Board Delays $1 Fee on Car Registrations
The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to postpone for one week a plan to charge car owners an extra $1 in their registration fee to fund a team of lawyers to prosecute car thieves.
Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, who proposed the levy, said he asked supervisors to delay a decision until July 30, when Supervisor Vicky Howard would be able to vote on the matter.
Howard was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
He said he believes that Howard supports the plan and he wants her to vote on it.
The number of reported car thefts in Ventura County has increased from 1,661 in 1982 to 2,363 in 1990, according to a report from the district attorney’s office.
The supervisors have increased the car registration fee twice in the past eight months, from $24 to $28 to pay for several anti-smog programs operated by the county’s Air Pollution Control District.
Bradbury said he also wanted to delay the decision for one week because Supervisor Maria VanderKolk has suggested an alternative plan.
Under VanderKolk’s plan, Bradbury’s prosecution team would be funded not from an additional $1 registration fee but from increased levies already approved for the APCD.
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