City Controller Jeff Underwood estimated at the last meeting that the 2016 revenue from parking meter receipts — the amount of money paid into meters onsite — would exceed $2.25 million.
On Sept. 30, Underwood told the council the city was “growing” the source of revenue and gaining seed money for projects for the mayor to decide upon.
Stephen Volan, the city council representative for District 6, where the meters are located, said the city should keep in mind that not all expenses that could be meter-funded should be so.
“There’s no question at all that this is a new revenue stream for the city,” Volan said. “The question is where we should apply it.”
Underwood, during the city council meeting, presented an 18-month analysis of the revenue from parking meters.
At the beginning of the analysis, he showed the fund was roughly $51,000 in debt from the meter lease.
In June of 2015, the total revenue had risen to nearly $586,000. The meters made about $200,000 per month on average, Underwood said, depending on the amount of downtown traffic and whether a lease payment was subtracted from the total for the month.
The city will continue to pay off the lease for the meters in 2016 and 2017, after which Bloomington will own them, Underwood said, meaning the lease payments will no longer be subtracted from the revenue total.
Fees and services will likely bring in another $113,000 in 2016, he said. Fees incurred by parking meter users go into the general fund.
“When the meters were installed, there was an expectation that those would somehow cannibalize the revenue from parking in garages,” Volan said.
After the city council meeting, though, Volan said it’s clear the funds from the meters have not been stripped from other sources.
As the meters are located in district 6, Volan said the parking meter funds should be used to improve Bloomington’s downtown.
Volan studied “The High Cost of Free Parking” by Donald Shoup.
“Shoup will say that money generated in a district should be spent in that district,” Volan said. “One of my concerns as a district representative is that the city may be unintentionally short-changing District 6.”
Volan said general funds that used to be spent in District 6 may now be spent in other districts, while the downtown area is funded largely by parking revenue.
“The downtown still deserves the same consideration it got from the general fund,” Volan said.
Volan said Shoup wrote about the downtown of Pasadena, California, where, in order to convince retailers to accept the installation of parking meters, city officials used the money generated to improve the downtown area.
“The most important thing is that people need to know where the dollars are being applied,” Volan said.
Though Volan stressed the importance of deciding how meter funds will be used, he did not know when the final decision on the matter would be made.
“It’s going to be up to the next mayor — it’s a political question, one for the candidates,” Volan said.
