Parking Meter Costs, Technology to Change

The cost of on-street parking in downtown Louisville is going up.Starting in July, metered parking will cost one dollar per hour, marking a 25 cent increase. The Parking Authority of River City approved the change this week, and it's expected to generate a half million dollars in additional revenue each year. But despite the shortfall in the city budget, PARC business administrator Tiffany Smith says the money can only be used by the authority."All of our operating revenue goes back into the PARC budget," she says. "So it goes back to finance any of the parking garages, the surface lots, any of the equipment, the capital repairs, anything associated with the meters. Our revenues are not commingled with those in the general fund."Smith says the parking rate increase will be used to pay off debt on bonds for parking garages and to install credit card readers for on-street parking."We went into accepting credit cards approximately two years ago in our off-street locations. It's been a great success. It's been very well-received. And this will allow parkers that go to on-street parking that don't have change, don't have a smart card to still utilize one of the parking spaces," says Smith.Money from parking tickets and other citations goes to Metro Government. The structure of those fees was changed last year. At that time, more than $5 million in citations was uncollected.