The city of Tuscaloosa, Ala., is expanding its contract with Municipal Collections of America to go after unpaid water bills, in addition to parking ticket fines and red light camera violations.
A change in state law, which now allows the state income tax refunds of individuals to be targeted for these types of violations was a primary reason to expand the contract, according to an attorney for the city.
About $300,000 is written off every year in unpaid water bills, according to the city.
MCA has collected about 73% of the unpaid parking fines and 24% of the red light camera fines. The total amount of unpaid parking tickets, dating back to 2010, is $864,000. The total amount of unpaid red light camera fines, dating back to 2014 when the contract was awarded to MCA, is $1.14 million.
The attorney for the city expects the collection rate for the unpaid water bills to be as high as 70% thanks to the new law allowing garnishment of state income tax refunds.
