Officials Create Department to Collect Unpaid Fines

Rather than outsourcing its municipal debt collection to an outside collection agency, as many other city and state governments are, East Baton Rouge city-parish in Louisiana is ponying up $108,000 in start-up costs to develop its own collections department.

East Baton Rouge is looking at about $16 million in unpaid and uncollected municipal debt ? everything from library fines, ambulance fees, and parking tickets to other financial obligations.

But, as Parish Attorney Wade Shows, who received the Metro Council?s blessing last month to set up the new collections department, was quick to tell The Advocate, ?We?re not going to go after school kids for not paying late fees to the library.?

A lot of the bad debt is uncollectible, as it involves needy Medicaid patients. Medicaid pays a set amount to transport indigent people, and restricts medical providers from collecting additional payment from the patient.

One of the first tasks facing the newly formed collection arm of the parish?s government is how much exactly is owed ? and how much of that is truly collectible.

Unpaid library fines and fees have totaled $2.4 million since 1988. $4.7 million in unpaid Emergency Medical Services fees owed to the city-parish from 2005 alone.