$1 Car Fee Increase to Fight Crime Approved : Government: The district attorney will get $500,000 a year to stem auto thefts despite recent warnings to trim spending.

Despite their past criticisms of the district attorney’s budget overruns, Ventura County supervisors approved Tuesday a $1 increase in car registration fees to fund a team of lawyers to prosecute car thieves.

The increase will raise about $500,000 annually to pay for three prosecutors and two investigators. It will also help offset budget cuts that the supervisors have proposed for Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury’s office.

“No one wants to pay more fees and taxes,” Bradbury said. “But everyone wants government to continue to provide all the services to which they’ve become accustomed.”

The increase in Bradbury’s budget comes four months after the supervisors lashed out at him for budget overruns of $344,600 at a time when all county departments were told to make cuts.

In recent weeks, Bradbury has criticized the proposed county budget, which calls for 5% cuts in each department to help erase a $13.6-million deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1. A final budget is expected to be adopted next week.

The 5% cut would have forced Bradbury to lay off 11 prosecutors, he said. But the $1 increase in registration fees will nearly offset the proposed cuts.

The supervisors voted 3 to 2 for the registration fee increase, with Supervisors Maggie Erickson Kildee and Maria VanderKolk dissenting.

Erickson Kildee said she opposed the increase because the Legislature has adopted a budget that increases the registration fee by an average of $60 a year, effective Thursday.

The supervisors have increased the fee by $4 in the past eight months to pay for several anti-smog programs operated by the county’s Air Pollution Control District.

VanderKolk said she voted against the increase because she supported an alternative plan to transfer to the district attorney’s office $500,000 in car registration fees earmarked for the air pollution district.

The other supervisors said they could not support cutting into the budget of the anti-smog programs.

Representatives of the California Green Party and the Ventura County Environmental Coalition told the board that they also opposed taking funding from anti-pollution programs.

“You have a difficult problem here today,” said Neil Moyer, president of the Ventura County Environmental Coalition. “But I recommend that the APCD’s budget be retained.”

The coalition has been a longtime advocate of stronger anti-smog measures and has supported most of VanderKolk’s environmental platforms. VanderKolk was elected last year on a campaign of slow-growth and stronger environmental protection.

Although VanderKolk said she supports anti-smog programs, she questioned how the pollution control district plans to spend some of the money raised by the increased fees.

For example, the district has set aside $97,000 for salary and expenses of a California Highway Patrol officer to cite drivers of smog-belching cars. But VanderKolk said CHP officers are already required to issue such citations.

The district has also earmarked $30,000 to promote a toll-free telephone number that allows residents to report smoking cars. But VanderKolk questioned the effectiveness of the program, saying the money would be better spent prosecuting car thieves.

Supervisor John K. Flynn, who voted against the last two car registration fee increases, said he supported this increase because he agreed with Bradbury that the prosecution of car thieves is a high priority.

Bradbury said reported car thefts increased by 43% in Ventura County in eight years.

He said the new prosecution team may also play a role in reducing automobile insurance rates in the county.

“Unless some steps are taken to stem the tide of vehicle-related thefts, the public is bound to be faced with increased costs, which will be far more than a dollar a year,” he said.

A law drafted by state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita) gives county supervisors the authority to impose the additional registration fee. Bradbury said the law allows him to spend half the money on the new prosecution team and the rest on other employees.