Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly has vetoed an ordinance passed by the City Council that had raised the maximum allowable rates charged by towing companies to $250 for towing towing passenger vehicles in the daytime and $275 during the evenings and weekends.
The rate increase, which Council passed on December 6, 2022, would allow towing companies on the City’s call list to charge tow prices on Chattanooga residents well in excess of the rate of inflation.
Mayor Kelly has proposed an alternative rate schedule with a daytime tow rate of $200 and a night/weekend rate of $215—an adjustment that accommodates the towing industry’s increasing costs, while not overcharging Chattanoogans for a service that has not fundamentally changed since 2004.
Currently, tow companies can charge a maximum of $125 to tow passenger vehicles in the daytime and $135 during the evening and on weekends.
“While the $50 difference in my A Class rate proposal is not dramatically far apart from the Council’s proposed ordinance, that difference really matters to working-class Chattanoogans struggling with inflation themselves — especially when a towing fee is almost always an unexpected expense,” Mayor Kelly said in his Dec. 13 letter informing City Council of his veto.
“Again, I understand the need to adjust these rates for inflation, but adding an extra 25 to 27 percent to an inflation-adjusted rate is not a proposal that I can support.”