Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner announced Thursday that her office has found an additional $1.44 million in unpaid car rental taxes and penalties.
This is in addition to the $743,107 that her office found in January during a routine audit. Hertz paid the amount promptly plus penalties and interest, and Wagner expects them to do the same this time.
Wagner said at a news conference that she wants the money to go toward restoring cut bus routes in the South Hills and Homewood. She sent a letter to Allegheny County Council who passes the money to the Port Authority asking them to do so.
Wagner said a healthy transit system is essential to a healthy region.
“That’s why we think that its so imperative that the county council and also the Port Authority board act as quickly as possible to put this money that they were not counting on to good use,” she said.
Wagner said auditors found Hertz Corporation didn’t pay the county the full taxes it owed from January 2008 through April 2010.
The money is generated by rental car fees and earmarked for use by the Port Authority. In 2011, facing financial troubles, the Port Authority cut transit service. Some of those routes have been restored.
The drink and car rental tax was enacted in 2008.
