Credit card parking meters included in 2007 budget

Drivers could use credit cards in new parking meters that would replace more than one-third of Milwaukee's downtown meters next spring, a city official said Monday.

The Department of Public Works is preparing to review proposals to install at least 100 of the new devices, said Dorinda Floyd, public works finance chief.

Because each unit would handle payments for up to 15 parking spaces, they would replace 1,500 of the 4,000 meters downtown, Floyd said.

Plans for the new meters are included in Mayor Tom Barrett's 2007 budget. Floyd discussed the budget's parking provisions with the Common Council's Finance & Personnel Committee.

In 2004, an Australian company provided four of the devices for a three-month test along a one-block stretch of N. Jefferson St. Each meter took coins, credit cards and debit cards as payment for five to nine spaces.

Drivers would punch the number of their space into the meter's keypad, then insert coins or swipe their cards.

Flashing lights told parking checkers which spaces were out of time.

Parking revenue for the block rose 3% during the test, and public reaction was positive, officials said.

The devices also provide much more information about how people use parking meters, which eventually could be used to come up with different rates for different times of day, Floyd said.

Although the city has 6,300 parking meters, the devices accepting credit cards make more sense downtown where parking is $1 an hour than in neighborhood business districts where parking is as little as 25 cents an hour, because the minimum credit card charge is $1, she said.

Also Monday, Floyd said a $5 increase in parking ticket late fees would produce $600,000 a year.

Unpaid tickets now rise $5 after 10 days, another $5 after 28 days and another $15 after 58 days. Barrett's budget would change the increase after 28 days to $10.

The parking fee boost is the largest of several fee increases that will be considered by the full council today.

Fee increases are often considered before the rest of the budget, to give the city comptroller time to verify they will produce the revenue projected by the administration. Other fee increases on the agenda are aimed at businesses.