Upon the completion of the budget hearing and listening to the comments from staff to questions from Council members I still have many questions about the parking fund and budget.
Parking fund currently has a $12M fund balance. FY24 budget proposes spending all of that, plus $15 million from general funds plus all proceeds from FY24 (~$6) for a total of $64.2 million in spending on parking. $21 million is for salary and operations as budgeted. So $43 MILLION dollars in capital/other expenses in 2024.
Source: Parking Fund tab from Summary of Revenues, Expenditures and Balance
In the proposed budget, $700 thousand was slated to the general sidewalk fund. In the updated budget proposal, $7M was allocated to street paving.
In a memo I stumbled on about street car funding, the head of Mobility stated “The Mobility Department has committed parking revenues to fund this service and is working with HART to finalize the details this fall.” This being a rubber tire downtown circulator that connects with the streetcar and travels north/south.
Anyway, the four questions I’ve sent to City Council and the admin that I’d like to get answers to at some point are:
- How exactly can the fund balance in the parking fund be spent? I’d like to know if there is language outlined anywhere in state statute or municipal code.
- Where out of the parking budget did the $7M for paving come from?
- Were there any other changes to the parking budget beyond reallocating the $7M?
- Is the Smart City Parking Guidance project still funded in the approved Capital Improvement Projects budget?
To number 1, we know it can be spent so far on sidewalks, paving and transit. It would be good to know exactly how it can be spent other than how Mobility seems fit to spend it.
Regarding the parking guidance, the presentation handed out at the final budget hearing states $7 million from parking for paving; guidance system delayed a year. However, the parking guidance project was part of the Capital Improvement Project budget. Staff stated there were no changes to that outside of the changes Council made to how the Community Improvement Tax was being used. Perhaps I misunderstood but clarity would be great.
I’d also like to note, absolutely no one asked for money to come out of the parking budget for paving. I was asking if it could be used for the CIP project laying sidewalk for 2 miles on El Prado. Or anywhere else. This is simply taking $7 out and spending it. I was asking if we don’t have to put $15M from general funds into parking, then that’s $15 million that could be spent anywhere, not just on transportation. Like maybe not cutting social action funds.
Without the answers to number 2 and 3, we won’t know how parking is being budgeted.
