With the March 1 deadline for determining next year’s budget drawing near, city leaders are looking into how they can solve a long-term deficit in the parking fund.
“If you keep running it at a deficit, you eventually run out of money,” said Bill Stafford, Evanston’s director of finance.
He said the city’s parking committee discussed the future of the parking fund during its meeting last week. Topics of discussion included the possibility of increasing parking rates at meters and garages or decreasing administrative expenditures.
“The parking fund that exists has been running a slight deficit for the past two years,” Stafford said, “and we’re not sure how much we’re going to have to raise (rates).”
Jonathan Perman, executive director of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce and a member of the parking committee, said the parking fund has to be balanced so that revenues match expenditures.
“Actions will be taken to make sure that the fund is solvent,” Perman said.
Revenues for the fund come from meters, garage charges and space rentals, said Jean Baucom, Evanston’s parking system manager, but most of the city’s expenses are higher and debt-related.
For instance, the city is 10 years in on a 30-year mortgage for the Church Street garage. Even if Evanston only spends $500,000 annually to run the garage and earns $600,000 from it, the city still has to cover about $675,000 for the mortgage.
Unlike other city funds that are tax-supported, the parking garage is an enterprise fund, meaning it could ideally be profitable, Baucom said. She compared the fund to running a Dunkin’ Donuts.
“They’re in business to at least break even,” Baucom said. “Unfortunately the city has been subsidizing parking by keeping cheaper rates.”
According to Baucom, parking rates in city garages currently are much cheaper than most private garages in the area. She said employees in downtown Evanston would pay more than $100 for a monthly permit in a privately owned garage but only about $75 in a city-owned garage.
People would pay as much as $15 for eight hours of parking in a private garage but only half that price in a city garage.
Besides paying off debt, most parking expenses go toward paying employees and buying and repairing equipment.
“If you don’t maintain what you’ve got,” Baucom said, “then you don’t have anything collecting the revenue.”
Baucom said she would welcome a way to balance the fund and hoped to have more money to hire additional staff in the future.
“I’ve been here for a long time,” Baucom said, “and I’ve always felt there has to be a plan for planned rate increases.”
Like most city departments’ requests for additional funds, the parking department’s request will not be fulfilled, Baucom said. She and her staff achieved their 2003-04 goal of increasing enforcement of parking regulations as a way to up turnover in metered spaces. But they wanted to hire another person to work on implementing new software for issuing and processing tickets, according to a performance report in the proposed budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year.
“It’s something that’s highly desirable,” Baucom said. “We’ve got one person who’s covering several positions.”
Residents might not notice if they have to put more quarters into a parking meter, but, as Baucom said, ultimately those cents would add up to revenue for the city.
