County May Impose Vehicle Registration Fee to Tow Junkers : Taxes: The extra dollar a year would raise $525,000 to pay for ticketing and hauling away abandoned vehicles.

Ventura County drivers would pay an extra dollar annually in vehicle fees to cover the cost of hauling away abandoned cars and trucks, under a program being considered by the county Transportation Commission.

The new fee would generate $525,000 a year, which would be used by the county and its 10 cities to cover the cost of ticketing and taking away junkers left illegally on public streets and private property.

The commission has told its staff to draft rules covering how the money would be allocated and what costs would be covered.

But before the fee is imposed, the program must be approved by the commission, then by county supervisors and a majority of the cities representing more than half of the county’s population.

The new fee is favored by officials in some cities that have stopped tagging and hauling away abandoned vehicles because of budget cuts.

“We haven’t been able to do it for the past 18 months,” said Lt. Steve Bowman, commander of the Ventura Police Department’s traffic unit. “We still get calls. We have to tell people that unless it’s a safety hazard . . . there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Before Ventura lost its full-time abandoned-car enforcement officer, the city was removing 25 to 30 vehicles a month. “This is a service that people want,” Bowman said.

But at a meeting Friday, some transportation commissioners said they are reluctant to impose yet another new tax. They also fear the program might encourage more motorists to abandon their old clunkers.

“I think people are being nickel-and-dimed to death,” said Supervisor Vicky Howard, who serves on the commission. “We still ought to make people responsible for their abandoned vehicles and not just authorize them to continue dumping.”

Ventura County residents already pay an extra $6 a year annually on their vehicle registration fees for special programs such as the county’s emergency highway call-box system.

Howard objected earlier this year when the commission supported the use of call-box fees for roaming tow-truck assistance on county freeways.

The supervisor said that if another dollar is collected, it must be used only for the abandoned-vehicle cleanup.

Commissioner David Smith, a Camarillo councilman, cast the lone vote against even drawing up guidelines for the program.

“I’m very hesitant to move this forward,” he said. “I think another dollar on the vehicle registration fee can hurt. I don’t think this is the way to do it.”

Commission staff members, who obtained figures from the county and nine cities, said more than 15,500 abandoned vehicles were hauled away during 1992 at a cost of nearly $300,000.

Although salvage companies will tow away such cars at no cost to the city or county, the local government must pay for police or code enforcement officers to mark the vehicle, check its mileage and send a notice to the last registered owner.

Bill Windroth, who heads the county’s building and safety division, said budget cuts have forced his staff to devote far less attention to abandoned vehicles. But he acknowledged that it may be hard to muster support for the new fee among residents who rarely see abandoned clunkers.

“People who don’t have the problem in their yard or their neighborhood find it hard to swallow paying another fee to take care of problems elsewhere in the county,” he said.

To begin paying for the cleanup of abandoned vehicles next Jan. 1, the Transportation Commission must approve the program and obtain support from the county and the cities before Oct. 1, commission staff members said.