More than a year-and-a-half after the Haines Borough Assembly adopted an ordinance establishing a $22 biennial motor vehicle registration tax, the borough has impounded one vehicle and collected $2,439 in revenue.
The borough impounded a wrecked pickup at Picture Point in late 2013 after public pressure and criticism that it was obstructing the landscape, but otherwise hasn’t moved forward with a program to rid the borough of unsightly junked and abandoned cars.
Manager David Sosa said the program is stalled for several reasons. “Initially, it was the result of insurance, and then it was pointed out that a secure storage site is needed for impounded vehicles and that needed to be set up,” Sosa said.
Sosa assigned the project to outgoing chief of police Bill Musser and former public facilities director Carlos Jimenez.
Jimenez suggested storing impounded vehicles at the Public Safety Building in front of the existing surveillance camera with no fence, but Musser said the building’s system would need to be upgraded to include at least three more video cameras, in addition to installing an $80,000 fence.
Sosa said the fencing and camera system would cost about $100,000, plus ongoing insurance costs.
“The current fiscal state requires that we make good choices in determining what we do with funds collected. The code states that the funds collected from the (motor vehicle tax) be used for vehicle impoundment and that is the current plan, although that need not always be the case and there may be other valid uses to which those funds could be applied,” Sosa said.
The borough projects it will receive $16,650 from the tax in this fiscal year, which ends June 30, but has only received about $2,400 so far.
Chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart said she calculated the $16,650 figure with DMV data. The number is a projection for four months of receipts, as the tax went into effect Jan. 1 this year with the understanding the borough wouldn’t receive its first payment until March.
There are 4,500 vehicles registered in Haines, so if each of those nets the borough $22 every two years, the municipality should receive $16,650 over four months, Stuart said. Instead, it has received $2,400 for two months of receipts.
“Likely, registrations do not come due evenly throughout a 24-month period. Perhaps people are more likely to purchase vehicles in non-winter months. After we have a couple more months of data, we will check our assumptions with the DMV if it looks like our projections are off,” Stuart said.
A $50,000 Freightliner flatbed truck the borough bought in November 2013 also eats into program finances. Originally slated to cost $25,000, the assembly voted to buy a $50,000 truck instead. The extra $25,000 came from the areawide general fund, with the condition that it be repaid through future revenues from the motor vehicle tax.
That means in addition to whatever it ends up costing for an impound lot, the borough also must pay itself back with registration tax revenues for the truck’s additional $25,000 cost.
Stuart said that will likely involve an operating transfer from the motor vehicle tax fund (not yet established) into the general fund, via a budget amendment approved by the assembly.
Assembly member George Campbell has suggested scrapping the idea of using the funds for a junked car removal program and using them to fund road maintenance instead.
“It should not be the borough’s job to be picking up cars and towing them in and out of town, including junked cars,” Campbell said. “Let the people that own the junked cars get rid of the junked cars.”
Putting that money toward road maintenance would require a code change, as code stipulates “proceeds derived by the borough from the motor vehicle registration tax shall be deposited in (the Vehicle Impoundment and Retirement Program Fund) and used for the impoundment and the responsible disposal of retired and abandoned vehicles within the borough.”