E-470’s board of directors today approved toll increases for January 1 and amended the highway authority’s policy on assessing penalties and other fees on drivers with delinquent accounts.

Board members for the 47-mile toll highway hiked the toll at four of its mainline toll plazas by a dime to $2.50 for its transponder holders. The Plaza A toll, at the south end of the highway, also will jump by 10 cents to $2.25 for transponder users.

About 75 percent of E-470 users have transponders, according to highway officials, and their toll at ramps will increase by a nickel to $1 at the first of the year.

The one-quarter of E-470 drivers who are tolled by a read of their license plates also will pay higher tolls next year that again will include a premium payment over the transponder rate.

Drivers tolled by license-plate reading will pay $3.15 at four of the mainline plazas and $2.80 at Plaza A. They will pay $1.25 for each toll transaction at a ramp.

A year ago, E-470’s board voted to impose smaller annual toll increases instead of the previous policy of hiking mainline tolls by 25 cents every three years.

E-470 Executive Director John McCuskey reminded board members that regular toll increases are required by the highway authority’s finance plan so E-470 can continue to pay off its more than $1 billion in debt and maintain adequate debt-ratio reserves.

The highway board, which includes officials from cities and counties in the east metro area, also voted to change the way E-470 bills those with delinquent toll accounts. The new policy will charge road users $25 for each civil penalty notice instead of $25 for every toll transaction contained in that notice.

The change could mean the reduction of hundreds, even thousands, of dollars that delinquent E-470 users owe.

Under the system in place before the change, a toll account in the civil penalty phase that had 10 toll transactions totaling $25 in tolls due would also have been assessed $25 per transaction, or $250, in addition to the $25 in tolls and other late fees and collection fees due.

Under the new policy, E-470 users, in such a case, could settle the account by paying the tolls and fees due and one $25 civil penalty fee instead of the $250 in accumulated per-transaction penalties, said Joe Donahue, E-470’s finance chief.

The highway has issued about 200,000 civil penalty notices to delinquent road users since May, Donahue said. Each notice typically averages about 10 toll transactions.

The board’s policy change also calls for the assessment of a single $20 court fee per court appearance if a hearing officer issues a final order of liability on a disputed toll bill, instead of hitting the road user with a $20 court fee per toll transaction.

That change also may save road users hundreds of dollars since per-transaction court fees can add up quickly at the end of the billing process.

Overdue toll bills get to a hearing officer about seven months following use of the highway, after earlier payment-notice deadlines are not met, according to E-470’s billing process.

“Our primary goal is to encourage people to pay our tolls,” McCuskey said of the new plan to reduce the accrual of per-transaction penalties and hearing fees.

Road officials also said they will be working with the Colorado Department of Revenue on a process that would allow E-470 to get the state to put a hold on a motorist’s vehicle registration renewal until past-due tolls, fees and penalties are paid on a delinquent account.

The law allows such a hold to be put on vehicle-registration renewal in cases of delinquent toll bills, but E-470 has not sought such authority until now, McCuskey said.

Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com