Department: Management and Budget
Department Head/Elected Official: Daniel Ramos
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Policy
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWDBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
title
Request for approval to work with the appropriate County departments to update burglar alarm and credit card convenience fees and present recommended fees to the Court at the first meeting in February 2024 for implementation on April 1, 2024.
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Background and Discussion:
The County's burglar alarm fees have not been updated for many years and appear inadequate relative to the County's cost to provide the service and to the fees charged by other jurisdictions. By way of comparison, the County's annual burglar alarm renewal fee is $10 vs. $50 for City of Houston residential customers and $156 for non-residential customers. OMB seeks to work with the Sheriff and other appropriate departments to review and determine appropriate fee amounts.
The County allows customers to pay for many services using a credit card but in many cases does not charge a transaction fee sufficient to cover the amount the county pays the credit card company. For the sake of uniformity and cost recovery, OMB is asking for approval to work with relevant departments to establish a countywide fee that can be applied to credit card transactions where legally allowed.
Expected Impact:
OMB's estimated revenue underpinning the FY24 budget assumed partial-year increases to both of these fees with estimated additional revenue of $1M from each one. On a full-year basis, the impact is estimated to be $4M ($2M for each).
If no adjustments are made in FY24, the county will not receive $2M of revenue that was anticipated in the OMB revenue projection an...
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