The Parking Fund Wants More of Your Money

I will also note as I did at our city council meeting, that the city still supports changing a state statute to allow a surcharge on your car registration fee to pay for costs associated with the parking garages and on street meter costs.

I wrote this in a December update to the Ward 2 email list, as one of the reasons why I voted against the parking plan at our city council meeting.

This is from the text of SB 174, a proposed bill that did not get very far in the last legislative session. But as reported in Monday’s January 15, Concord Monitor by Caitlin Andrews, it is back.

Operating costs shall also include, but not be limited to, expenses associated with labor, materials, supplies, and services provided by contractors and vendors, administration and management, overhead, moneys dedicated to capitalization of reserve accounts, as well as costs associated with enforcement of regulations for public parking facilities.

Here in part is what she reported:

“A pending piece of legislation would open up potentially thousands of dollars for Concord to use to pay for its parking facilities, should it pass muster in the Legislature and, later, the city council.

…Senate Bill 174, which, among other things, would have lowered the population threshold of municipalities allowed to tack on a fee to motor vehicle registrations to pay for the maintenance, operation and construction of parking facilities…”

It isn’t enough that your tax dollars are continuing to pay for costs associated with the parking fund. And it isn’t enough that taxes from the tif district (that diverts taxes from the school district, county and state) are being used to pay for the Main Street project.

Now members of the city council would like to consider having everyone who registers their car in Concord pay a surcharge that would go for costs associated with the parking fund.

The city - you the tax payer - has already spent nearly $14 million for improvements to Main Street. We were told this was done to make Main Street more attractive for redevelopment. This was done to increase the assessed value of the downtown. Well we have new development and we will have increased assessments from new and redeveloped projects. But this is still not enough.

Besides continuing to subsidize parking with general fund revenues, now we are told that every time you register your car, you may be required to pay a surcharge for costs associated with downtown parking. Really.

Here’s what I think. We (you and me, the tax payers of Concord) have already made a significant contribution to improve our downtown. We have been told by our administration, mayor and others, that those who have businesses downtown and own buildings downtown would be seeing increased revenues because of the Main Street project.

Other communities charge those in their downtowns a surcharge to help pay for the additional costs associated with both the improvements and the increased maintenance costs to their downtowns. Improvements that have resulted in additional revenues for those doing business in their downtowns.

I am not advocating to charge for the improvements. I am advocating for those who receive the most benefit to pay their fair share. It is time to stop shifting all the costs of the downtown project to all the property owners in Concord. It is time for those who derive the greatest benefit from the Main Street project to pay their fair share.

Instead of a surcharge on your car registration I propose the following:

First, structure parking fees so that the parking fund is truly self sustaining. The revenue collected from those who use the parking facilities and park downtown should cover all operating, maintenance and bonded expenses.

Second, services that are provided for the downtown that are not provided to the rest of the community should be paid for by those who benefit from those services. Manchester has enacted a Business Improvement District (BID) for their downtown. Manchester places a property tax surcharge on their Central Business District. These fees go to Intown Manchester and are used for outdoor maintenance and beautification. It is time for Concord to approve a Business Improvement District and use the funds from the district to pay for the special services provided to our downtown.

Enough already.