MEETING STORY

Washington State University Parking and Transportation requested approval of a three year parking rate increase at Wednesday’s Associated Students of Washington State University Senate meeting.

The rate increase would be approximately 5 percent each year. Both hourly garage and parking lot rates would increase under the proposed plan.  The increase would vary from an additional 46 cents per month for a blue permit to an additional $2.40 per month for an orange permit.  

Parking and transportation says they need the increased revenue to pay for maintenance and repairs in several of the parking garages on campus.

“There are several facilities currently with deferred maintenance,” said Bridgette Brady of the Parking and Transportation Task Force. “Deferring maintenance costs much more in the long term.”

Parking and transportation made the same request last year.  The proposal was turned down due to the economic climate.

“The needs from last year still exist,” Brady said

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Brady answered some frequently asked questions before opening the floor to Senate question, including why the rate increase is being proposed now, where the revenue from parking sales goes and what has parking and transportation done to keep prices low.

In addition to the regular annual maintenance needed, Brady also stated that unless the proposal is improved the fine arts parking garage may be forced to close due to safety concerns. 

Brady stated that all parking and transportation revenue goes into one pool of funding which is then used on maintenance on all garages and lots on campus.  She also said that while some may balk at paying for garage maintenance when they never use garage parking, the revenue from the garages has often gone towards parking lot maintenance.

To keep costs lower for students parking and transportation has reduced the number of positions and left several positions vacant. They are also currently restructuring to remove an additional two positions.

During the question and answer period, Senator Derrick Skaug was the first to question Brady.

“After the three years are up, will the raises be permanent?” said Skaug. “If so, what will the increase in revenue go towards?”

Brady answered that the rates would stay the same and the increased revenue would be used to build up a reserve for maintenance projects. Additionally, the construction of the fine arts garage would begin in the summer of 2013 and most of the money would go to that project.

Senator Grant Eastey was concerned about the cost of the fine arts garage project.

“How much of the maintenance budget is spent on the fine arts garage?” Eastey asked.

Brady stated that the necessary repairs to the fine arts garage would account for around 50 percent of the maintenance budget.

Brady also stated that only those students who park on campus in lots or garages would be paying for the increases under the proposal.  She also stated that due to the bidding process required it is unlikely that the use of volunteers would be able to decrease the cost of the project.

Brady stated that this is the second round of constituent review and that more discussions will take place before any new rate increase will be implemented.