Higher parking fees to come in new Seattle budget

To fuel the 2011 budget in hard economic times, Seattle city leaders will look to residents to pay more for city services and live with higher fees, fines and parking rates.

That means soccer teams will pay more per player. Drivers will pay more at the meter — up to $4 an hour. Pet-license fees, library fines, swimming-pool admission all are going up, too.

The resulting budget, which closes a $67 million revenue shortfall, avoids any broad-based tax increase and keeps libraries, community centers and parks open — but at an increased cost city leaders think Seattleites are willing to pay.

The council will vote on the final budget Nov. 22, but made its major decisions Friday.

"We're not going to be able to do everything we wanted in this budget," said council budget chairwoman Jean Godden. "Far from it."

Along with proposing various fee increases, Mayor Mike McGinn chipped away at the budget shortfall by freezing police hiring, laying off more than 200 employees, and getting most employees to agree to cut their planned raises to the rate of inflation.

The council left those cuts mostly in place, but responded to residents angry about McGinn's proposal to cut some community-center hours and neighborhood services.

The 2011 general-fund budget, with many of the mayor's proposed cuts, will total about $895 million, down from $905 million last year.

"I think on the whole it is a responsible budget," McGinn said Friday, after a day of City Council votes. "We entered this year with a severe recession we're still in."

Park for up to $4 an hour

The council struck a compromise with McGinn by agreeing to increase meter rates to up to $4 an hour.

The maximum rate now is $2.50. Rates are not likely to go up to $4 in all neighborhoods.

The council also went along with the mayor's proposal to extend parking-meter hours two hours, until 8 p.m.

But members broke with McGinn by rejecting his plan to charge for parking on Sundays. The council heard from business owners who said the free parking draws weekend customers.

Councilmembers Tim Burgess and Mike O'Brien led an effort to require two parking studies. The first would look at how many spaces are being used now. The second would study whether to tailor parking rates to specific neighborhoods and adjust the rates depending on the time of day, with a goal of having about 85 percent of the street spaces filled.

That means parking might be cheaper in the mornings in Belltown, for example. But when bars and restaurants begin to fill up in the evenings, rates would rise to encourage high turnover of parking spaces.

The shift to "a demand basis" would mean the city would be managing parking as more than just a moneymaker, Burgess said.

Rates that change by time of day wouldn't take effect until 2012, at the earliest.

Community centers get a break

After hearing from angry residents, the council changed the mayor's plan to make the Alki, Ballard, Green Lake, Queen Anne and Laurelhurst community centers "limited service." The mayor's budget cut their drop-in hours from about 50 to about 20, and the council restored many of those hours.

The council also kept open a preschool and toddler room at the Green Lake Community Center that the mayor had proposed converting to offices.

The council left in the 2011 budget a $20 million renovation of the Rainier Beach Community Center. McGinn made a point to fund the center because it had been left out of several previous budgets.

Deal with MOHAI helps

The biggest change the council made to the mayor's proposed budget was to reject his major new revenue source — a higher commercial parking tax. The mayor's proposed increase from 12.5 to 17.5 percent would have raised about $10 million.

The council patched that hole in the budget by asking a favor of the Museum of History & Industry. The city and museum plan to split some revenue from the sale of MOHAI's land and building in Montlake to the state when the new 520 bridge is built.

Councilmember Nick Licata asked the museum if the city could have its $8.5 million portion of the money first — essentially, an advance. The museum will get a later payment from the state in 2013, which would have gone to the city.

Using that $8.5 million, the council restored funding to community center drop-in hours, Crime Victim Advocates in the Seattle Police Department, neighborhood district coordinators and some other popular services.

They voted to give an additional $100,000 to homeless-shelter providers and spend another $76,000 to use the basement of City Hall for a homeless shelter six months of the year.

Council members said 80 percent of what they added to the mayor's proposed budget was paid for with the MOHAI money.

They decided not to fund some of McGinn's proposed bike and pedestrian projects, Seattle Department of Transportation money for street maintenance and the first installment of a $15 million contribution to the South Park Bridge replacement.

Seattle City Light rates to rise

Meanwhile, electric rates will go up in 2011 and 2012, as well, though Seattle City Light is separate from the city's general budget.

The council approved the mayor's proposed 4.3 percent rate increase for 2011, but approved an increase in 2012 of 3.2 percent instead of the 4.2 percent proposed. Most people won't notice a change to their bills in 2011, though, because the council also voted to lift a 4.5 percent surcharge ratepayers have been paying since May.

Seattle Times staff reporter Mike Lindblom contributed to this report. Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com