Prepare to pay more for a parking ticket starting Jan. 1.
The fine for staying overtime at an expired parking meter will rise from $28 to $49.
But along with cost increases across the board for all parking tickets, including parking in a handicap spot and parking in a permit-only area without one (to name a few possibilities), you’ll also save some money if you park short-term in a Downtown parking garage starting next year.
The Pennington Street Garage, the Joel D. Valdez Main Library garage and the City/State garage will offer the first hour of parking free, after that you’ll pay $1 an hour, said Chris Leighton, the city’s parking program coordinator.
Instead of paying 50 cents to park at a meter and then getting slapped with a $49 ticket when the time expires, you could park for free for an hour in a garage, and if you stay slightly longer than an hour, you’ll only pay $2.
People are also reading…
“It’s to encourage people to use the garages,” Leighton said.
The free first hour may also help the Downtown merchants because most people who are Downtown for less than a whole day are there to make one stop, and are in and out in an hour, Leighton said.
The increase in parking ticket prices is because the city court raised it’s case processing fee, said Chris Hale, deputy court administrator for Tucson City Court.
The state adds a surcharge based on a percent of the city’s fees, so any increase in city fees leads to an increase in state fees.
“It’s really a cost-recovery fee and it’s for the court to recover some of its costs” including mailing notices and credit card processing fees, Hale said.
These fees do not include the additional $70 added to a citation when a person ignores it and ends up with late fees, Hale said.
“I hate to see people do that particularly now when everything’s tight they could save a lot of money by paying on time,” he said.
The city is also preparing a request for proposals for outsourcing some of the parking program management, Leighton said.
The request will ask for bids on work including management assistants, public relations and marketing for ParkWise, and security and maintenance for their parking garages, Leighton said.
A similar program was proposed by the Downtown Tucson Partnership earlier this year. Outsourcing some of the ParkWise responsibilities will save the city department money by cutting operating costs. It has been operating at a deficit of more than $1 million.
Even with some outside management, all ParkWise employees would remain city employees, and Leighton would remain in charge of the program.
ParkWise is also considering pricing meters according to demand sometime in the next year or so, Leighton said. This would mean high-demand meters, such as those on Congress Street, University Boulevard and those near City Hall, could cost more per hour than those in lower-use areas, Leighton said.
U of A president declines to sign shared governance contract with faculty
