PBOT proposes cracking down on parking violators to lower budget deficit

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — If you regularly park on the street in Portland, you might have to pay a little more in the future.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation is proposing cracking down on parking violators and requiring drivers to pay an extra fee. It's part of its plan to lower its $32.4 million budget deficit. The shortfall would require the agency to lay off 118 employees unless it comes up with a plan to lower it.

At Thursday’s City Council meeting, PBOT Director Millicent Williams proposed using $8 million from the Portland Clean Energy Fund to close some of the gap and hire 28 new parking officers -- six to enforce expired vehicle registrations and 22 to enforce parking compliance. This would cover another $5.5 million.

The plan also includes requiring drivers who use their credit card at a meter to pay a credit card fee of 20 cents an hour that the city currently pays.

“By increasing the current parking rate by 20 cents per hour in all districts to make up for previous years lost in inflation and indexing future rates to inflation by eight cents per hour per year, the bureau could generate about $3.8 million per year in reinvestment for at-risk programs,” said Williams.

“As compared to our partner public works utility bureaus, we’re an anomaly in that we don’t increase our rates on a yearly basis to keep up with inflation," she added.

Williams said recent studies show that only about 50% of people who are park in Portland are paying.

“With an investment of 22 new parking enforcement officers, the bureau will be able to patrol all parking districts on a daily basis. We estimate that this increased enforcement will increase compliance rates by about 5% per year, bringing total compliance to approximately 75% within the next five years," she said.

Williams said under the new plan, drivers can expect to pay $2.60 an hour, which she says is still less than other cities.

“It would be a very important and less than painful pinch point for people than I believe is anticipated or expected,” she said.

“In fact, what we learned is that most people don't know how much they pay for parking unless they're in a parking garage that posts it as they're driving in.”

KATU News put the theory of whether drivers knew how much they're paying to the test by asking them.

“I do because I don’t come up very often, so I use the Parking Kitty app, and it will tell me what I’m paying,” said Debi Botz.

“I do,” said Michelle Quezada. “I park on the street all the time, and it’s like $5 every two hours. They don’t really check some of the time, but when they do, they really get you, even if it’s like two minutes past your time.”

In 2022, City Council approved a 40-cent parking meter increase that took effect in July of last year, despite pushback from Mayor Ted Wheeler and several Council members.

But on Thursday, Wheeler said he supported PBOT’s plan to crack down on parking violators and make drivers cover the credit card fee.

“I’ve lived in other cities that have parking districts and people realize that you have to pay for the infrastructure where you park your car,” he said. “It’s a hassle. It costs something, but it helps pay the bills for the infrastructure.”

Commissioner Rene Gonzalez said downtown businesses will continue to struggle unless parking rate increases are predictable year after year and don't just go up when PBOT needs to balance its budget.

“We are dealing with a lot of new fees and taxes for our taxpayers,” said Gonzalez. “I’m discounting the real impact on this, but parking has just always been one that just keep digging this hole, and we can't get out of it if we don't get on an indexing pathway.”