The Montgomery County Council on Tuesday voted to increase parking fees in Bethesda and Silver Spring by 10 cents an hour after refusing to do so last year. The fees will begin in Bethesda on July 1, but not until Jan. 1 in Silver Spring. The fee increases are projected to bring in $650,000 of revenue in Bethesda and $350,000 in Silver Spring in fiscal 2012, which starts July 1.
The agreement came after much debate and the protests of businesses in both Silver Spring and Bethesda. But council members said they felt they needed to raise parking fees because of fears that the reserves paying the debts of the parking garages have dropped too low and need replenishing.
“It is not about general revenues,” said Councilman Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda. “It is about satisfying our obligations to the fiscal health of our parking lot districts.”
However, the council rejected Saturday parking fees in Bethesda. County Executive Ike Leggett had proposed adding the fees in his fiscal 2012 budget to bring in an additional $700,000 a year.
Councilman Hans Riemer, D-at large, said he expects the Saturday fees to emerge again next year and said he supports it.
“I don’t understand why I don’t get charged for when I go into the garage on Saturday,” he said. “I think it’s an absolute missed opportunity.”
Monthly passes in parking garages would increase in Bethesda by $20 to $140 a month and $18 in Silver Spring to $113 a month under the plan approved by the council.
The council is scheduled to formally adopt the budget May 26.
The proposal for increasing fees in Silver Spring had been rejected in committee, but the full council supported it after working out a deal with Jane Redicker, president of the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce.
Redicker agreed to support the increase if the county would wait until January to implement it, giving businesses more time to prepare.
