Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 16
16 is to consider and take appropriate action on changes to the low income repair assistance, retrofit and accelerated vehicle retirement program.
>> good afternoon.
>> afternoon.
>> Travis County has been administering the low income repair assistance retrofit and accelerated vehicle retirement program, known as lirarav since 2005.
this is a program in Travis County to reduce air emissions and improve air quality.
this program assists vehicle owners who fail the emissions portion of their annual vehicle test, by helping them to pay for vehicle repairs up to $600 or replacing a vehicle that fails a test or is 10 years old or older by providing them the financial assistance in the amount of up to $3,500 for a newer vehicle.
last legislative session recently the Texas legislature reduced the budget by 87.5%.
a big chunk of it was taken out.
in the past Travis County last year received $1.7 million.
by our best estimate for fiscal year fy '12 and possibly fy '13, Travis County will receive approximately $175,000.
we do not know the exact amount yet.
it has not been disclosed by tceq, but that is what we estimate it will be.
they have done this without reducing the inspection fee that citizens pay whenever they get their vehicles inspected.
based upon a budget analysis, we expect that we will have enough money to run the program through the end of fiscal year '13 with some modifications to the program.
if we only issue repair vouchers instead of replacement vouchers.
currently we issue approximately 30 vouchers per month are redeemed under this program for repairs only.
we expect this number to jump after September 1st because based upon analysis of the program, approximately 35% of all applications are rejected because they do not meet the qualifications and that there is a lapse in the registration.
under the current rules, if a vehicle is lapsed in registration by even one day, their vehicle is not eligible.
but starting September 1st, the rules will change and a lapse will be allowed.
we do anticipate a big increase in the number of repair vouchers that we will receive.
tnr recommends that the court approves these programmatic changes to the program.
>> just to reiterate.
we are issuing vouch irs for repairs and replacements and we believe that -- we recommend that we only issue vouchers for repairs.
>> so with that, the replacement end of it, which significantly dropped from fy '10 to fy '11, the replacements, of course, are -- will not be honored, going from 600 some-odd in fy '10 down to a little more than 300 some-odd vehicles replaced in fy '11.
so what happens now to those vehicles that need to be replaced?
in other words, if there's a repair situation for these vehicles, is there any way these vehicles can be repaired instead of going into the replacement mode since we'll be issuing more repair vouchers for the low income replacement program?
how will that work?
explain how that will work so the public understands how significant this cut is as far as funding is, how far is the impact on us?
>> we will continue to offer repair vouchers because the goal of the program is to make the dirty cars clean so that people can be part of the solution instead of part of the problem in our fight against air pollution.
they'll be able to still apply.
they can apply either online or by mailing us a copy of the application or by sending it to us by fax.
we will honor these repairs.
>> so Commissioner, to expand on that, back when this started, the intent of the replacement element of this was that you would get old vehicles that were, say, 10 years and older, that were basically the dirtiest parts of the overall fleet that's out there.
>> yeah.
>> those cars, 1995 and earlier in general, because this started in about 2005, those cars were all manufactured under pre-- sort of an earlier set of emission standards.
emission standards have been tightened up considerably in recent what adele is finding is that the vehicles that are being replaced now, a lot of those are already vehicles that meet the much cleaner emission standards.
and what we've been seeing is that rather than seek a repair, some of these folks are simply junking the cars and getting a replacement vehicle.
so most of the vehicles being replaced now meet the cleaner emission standards and they are potentially repairable.
and you don't get as much bang for the buck for the program anymore.
so we'll continue to look at the data on that, but if we were to continue with any kind of a vehicle replacement component of this, we would be out of money in fairly short order because that takes a lot of money out of the program.
as we sort of go through this, we may come back to you at some point to reinstitute the replacement element of this, but that would be dependent upon us having built up or having enough money in hand that we know that we can get through the next couple of fiscal years given the state of funding that we're getting from the state of Texas.
>> all right.
that was my point.
I think you hit the nail right on the head when you said that.
so that was the answer I was trying to dig up out of you in this regard.
because this is really something that we really push forward to try to clean our air up, but of course dealing with some of the low income folks here to help them along, but of course -- anyway, you answered my question.
thank you.
>> what about the replacement cars already in the pipeline?
>> that's why we'll set a cutoff deadline if the court approves it as of September 1st.
we will no longer issue vouchers for replacements.
>> September 1?
>> if they've been issued they are good for 30 days through September 30th.
after that point we will no longer issue the vouchers.
we will send out an email to let all dealers know that this is our new policy and it will be announced on our website as well and on our voice mail that people call the number for assistance.
>> this has been 100% state funding all the time, no county match.
>> correct.
>> and it will continue that way.
>> correct.
>> until we change it, I guess.
>> one other part that I wanted to make is that adele brought to my attention that every other county but one has already decided -- every other county but one that's engage understand this program right now is already deciding to take the same course of action.
the one that hasn't just hasn't made up their mind yet.
>> two, another one and us, right?
>> another one and us.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> I'll second that one.
>> [ laughter ]
>> one more point of clarification.
the source of funding is a fee on registration that we collect on behalf of the state, correct?
>> actually, the state collects it on our behalf.
we give the state permission to collect this fee with the understanding that they will return it to us.
>> so will we continue to ask the state to collect that fee?
>> I am exploring that option.
we would like to wait to see what the next legislative session does, whether or not they will return the funding to its full amount or not.
but we are investigating that possibility of no longer collecting -- we're in a unique position from all the other counties that this is a voluntary program that Williamson and Travis County do.
>> I do have a concern about that.
there's been some discussion that the conference of urban counties with regard to hour delegation to -- to ask the state to collect that fee because as we all know, we're strapped with nothing but property tax as our chief income.
then we get a few fees that are user fees.
and if the use is no longer allowed by the state we shouldn't be collecting that user fee.
>> but the statute is very carefully crafted to make it easy for this to happen.
>> for it to be co-opted for other purposes?
>> that's correct.
>> any more discussion on the motion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you very much.
>> now, there's only one county that hadn't taken this action.
>> I was going to say it was actually houston region, not the -- not the one county down there.
she was nudging me on the side saying no, you don't have that quite right.
>> now there's only one region.
>> correct.
>> thank you.
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