The 17% fee increase has been in effect for about eight-months now. Gas station owners like Devinder Sing Sahota told the County Board of Supervisors this week that the higher fee is hurting them – especially at a time when people aren’t buying as much gas.
“Nobody’s going to go out of business just because of these fees. But it’s a whole combination of so many things that are going on in the industry right now that this is a big piece of whoever’s going out of business this does have something to do with that.”
The inspections used to be covered by the county’s General Fund. But faced with a 20-Million dollar deficit, county officials say they had to raise fees. County Supervisor Matt Rexroad says there’s no alternative.
“I would love to lower these fees as low as I possibly can. But I’ve got to have somebody say ‘you can change the cost by doing these things.’ And if they can lay that out for me I’ll do it. But so far I haven’t been presented that.”
A task force that supervisors set up to broker a compromise will continue to meet.
“Nobody’s going to go out of business just because of these fees. But it’s a whole combination of so many things that are going on in the industry right now that this is a big piece of whoever’s going out of business this does have something to do with that.”
The inspections used to be covered by the county’s General Fund. But faced with a 20-Million dollar deficit, county officials say they had to raise fees. County Supervisor Matt Rexroad says there’s no alternative.
“I would love to lower these fees as low as I possibly can. But I’ve got to have somebody say ‘you can change the cost by doing these things.’ And if they can lay that out for me I’ll do it. But so far I haven’t been presented that.”
A task force that supervisors set up to broker a compromise will continue to meet.