Tucson City Council voted Tuesday to bump hourly parking meter rate costs by 50%. It’s the latest effort to strike a balance between filling a budget deficit for the fund that operates Tucson’s parking infrastructure and responding to concerns from downtown employees and residents about the uptick in fees.
“That is important that we reinvest back into the parking system, into our meters, into our safety [and] the cleanliness of our parking structures,” Mayor Regina Romero said at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
That change will increase hourly meter parking from a cost of $1 to $1.50, as well as bumping the costs for hourly parking in some garages and some weekend flat rates.
That will be in addition to new parking meter fees approved in 2024 and already set to take effect in July 2026, which included an increase in garage parking rates, garage permit costs and student and commuter permits.
Those new rates will solve one immediate issue: filling a projected Park Tucson fund deficit, projected to be $549,750. Instead, the two parking funding bumps will bring the new revenue project for Park Tucson to $636,863 and in doing so take the fund out of the red.
The Park Tucson budget was not always in such dire straits.
“Park Tucson was intended to support its own operating expenses. For many years it did,” Andy Bemis, deputy director of transportation and mobility for the city, said at Tuesday’s study session. “Prior to the pandemic it had actually built up a positive fund balance. Unfortunately, the pandemic had a dramatic impact on parking activity and parking revenue.”
That’s left the fund not able to pay for its operations with what it takes in through parking fees, city information says.
“Current revenues do not fully cover the costs of operating and maintaining the parking system, including cleaning, security, enforcement, special events, parking education and promotion, and neighborhood parking programs,” according to the city website explainer about the increase in parking fees. “Current rates are below those in similar cities, and the update will bring Tucson more in line with peer communities.”
Tucson officials also promised to continue to try to find solutions to one ongoing area of concern: that low-income employees who work late shifts downtown and around the Fourth Avenue area will be among those most directly impacted by the rise in parking costs.
The city said in its memo that city staff are “collaborating with area property owners to explore partnerships for dedicating parking spaces in private lots for area employees to purchase monthly parking passes.”
During the meeting, council members also discussed approaching Tucson Unified School District to rent their garage near Fourth Avenue for evening parking.
The public meetings over the last few years on parking also raised concerns about cost and safety, particularly for downtown workers. Council members said they recognized Tuesday’s vote wouldn’t address them all, but said they wanted to find ways to solve those issues in the future.
“Many constituents and downtown employees have flagged safety concerns,” said Ward 6 council member Miranda Schubert, who promised to continue looking into the issues raised during public meetings in recent months. “I want to express my commitment to continuing conversations about the things that need to be addressed, specifically safety and security.”
Park Tucson is also working through repairs on about one-third of the city’s total meters: 544 of the 1,809 total meters in the system are in “some form of disrepair,” Bemis said.
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