Champaign City Council Approves Additional $25 Towing Fee

It will soon cost you more in Champaign, any time your car gets towed by the city.

Starting in October, the city of Champaign will charge a 25 dollar fee whenever they initiate a tow. That's on top of the fee charged by the tow truck operators the city hires --- and that fee will be going up five dollars as well.

Police Chief R-T Finney says the new fee will cover the cost to the city of handling the paperwork on each city-initiated tow.

"Every tow that occurs in the city that's a relocation tow off of private property, or a city-initiated tow from a traffic accident, any type of initiated tow that the police department or Public Works or Parking would initiate, that all has to be processed by the police department," explains Finney.

The fee will NOT apply to private towing --- such as when your car breaks down, and you hire a tow-truck to take it to a mechanic.

The towing administrative fee is one of several new and increased fees the Champaign City Council approved last June to help balance the city budget. Council members approved the specifics of the towing fee Tuesday night.

Tow truck operators resisted the new fee, which they have to collect on behalf of the city. The five-dollar increase in their own fee came as a result of negotiations between the operators and Champaign city officials.