Parking Fees go up, Up UP

I noticed something strange in my Yahoo list of parking articles. The majority of them talk about parking fees, fines, on street charges,,,all being raised in cities across the country.

If you read the articles, they all have the same theme. Councils are trying to balance their budgets on the backs of the parking public. Once again — parking has moved from being a "fee" to being a "tax."

When you park on street in Miami Beach, you will be paying an additional buck an hour because the local city dads are looking for ways to balance the budget. That extra buck isn’t a charge because it suddenly became more expensive to service and maintain the parking in MB, or because the free market says that people will pay more, its because they need the money.

What about Burlington, VT…Here’s the entire story in the Boston Globe online:

The city of Burlington is hoping to raise an extra $500,000 through an increase in parking fees.

 

Parking rates at city parking garages will increase to a maximum of $8 from the current $5.50.Long-term lease rates will increase as will parking meters.But city officials decided to keep the two-hour free parking policy for shoppers at downtown garages.Officials say it’s the first increase in parking rates in a decade.

The first line tells you where the money is going — the last line is the justification.

How bout one more, from the Boone Iowa News-Republican:

The City Council, at their last meeting Monday, enacted an ordinance
that raised the fines for overtime parking from five dollars to 10
dollars. "We’ll start enforcing it on (July 14)," said police chief Bill Skare.
The fine increase was enacted for a few reasons. One was to help
equalize a service the city provides with the cost in providing it."It’s due to general expenses," said city administrator Luke Nelson.
"The fines hadn’t gone up for a long period, and the city has to make
sure that they stay consistent with providing a service, such as
parking enforcement."
Funds collected from parking fines go into
the general fund of the city, which helps pay for many different
services, including law enforcement.
The other main reason, Nelson said, was to try and equalize fines."Previously there was a difference between parking fines for different
areas, and the intent was to get all fines to be at the same level," he
said.After this ordinance, both overtime and illegal parking fines cost $10 initially, raising to $15 if not paid within 30 days.Skare said that it’s important to know that the illegal parking fines had not gone up. "This is just the overtime parking fine increasing," he said.

Dud you catch it?  About halfway through the story — "Funds collected from parking fines go into the general fund of the city…" That says it all — the rest is window dressing.

These increases, and hundreds like them across the country, are simply ways for cities to collect money. They bear no relationship to the market price for parking, the need to clear parking or "churn" for businesses, nor do they bear any resemblance to the need for opening up parking to cut down on congestion. They simply are set higher to increase revenue, and put it into the general fund.

This is a horror. It skews parking requirements, make no difference in the on street/off street value of parking, doesn’t entice folks into off street, and certainly none of the money will ever see its way back into the neighborhoods from whence it came. It’ll just go to fund the latest boondoggle the folks in city hall have up their sleeve.

jvh