by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Tough budget times may find many City employees taking a tough hit to their pockets if a proposed parking rate increase comes to pass.
According to the City’s proposed budget for the upcoming year, parking garages and lots owned by the City downtown are expected to endure a 25 percent rate hike and an employee discount could be yanked before it ever takes affect.
City-owned facilities include the Duval County Courthouse and Jacksonville Landing lots and the Yates Building and Water Street garages.
Originally, the proposed budget made provisions for a 40 percent discount for City employees using those facilities. However, City Council member Daniel Davis said those discounts didn’t make sense now that the City was placing more emphasis on both saving and making money in the upcoming year.
Keeping the rates where they are could save the City up to $180,000 annually, Davis said.
“I just think we need to be prepared to look at every option,” he said. “Tough times call for tough measures and we can work towards streamlining our budget by making these kinds of creative decisions.”
Davis said he has received his share of scrutiny from a number of employees, but that he was “open to looking at all of the possibilities.”
One possibility, he said, could be that employees who are worried about the rate increase could take advantage of lots located outside of the City’s top-dollar facilities including the surface lots near the Osborn Center in LaVilla and the largely empty Kings Avenue garage on the Southbank.
“That’s just an idea, but it is one way we could free up those more expensive spaces and also encourage ridership of the Skyway,” he said. “It’s a win/win.”
Council member Suzanne Jenkins said making the more costly spots available to those who could afford them was “best practice.”
“We don’t need to be giving discounts, even to our employees, at our choice facilities,” Jenkins said. “We are supposed to be focusing on ways to bring in revenue and that’s no way to do it.
“I’m all for finding affordable parking, but you don’t have to sacrifice our top-dollar spaces for people who don’t even need access to their cars during the day. That’s what our outside lots are for.”
The Council is expected to further debate the proposed increases and discounts later this month.