Town Council members are exploring a plan which would involve a twenty five cent hike in the cost of meter and commuter parking downtown.

Councilman Mark Ciarrocca briefed his colleagues Tuesday evening on a plan which would involve raising the cost of on-street meters from fifty cents an hour to seventy five cents an hour. Ciarrocca's finance committee is also putting forth a plan which would involve raising commuter parking fees in the downtown. 

Ciarrocca said the plans were being put forward to help plug projected holes in the town's budget going forward. The budget for the current fiscal year has been showing a drop in revenue, a projection which is expectd to continue into 2011. Ciarrocca has said the finance committee is meeting regularly to determine new revenue sources for the town.

Parking fees have been one of the few areas of revenue growth for the town in recent years. Ciarrocca has stressed this is for permits and meter fees and not for parking fines.

The current rate hike proposal is only for meter parking and not for the parking lots around town. Ciarrocca said the prices there would remain at fifty cents an hour.

The Council has directed the town attorney to start drafting ordinances to implement the rate hikes, which will be likely adopted by the Town Council later in 2011.

Councilman Ciarrocca reported that the Finance and Public Safety committees had decided on two changes to be made to parking fees.  They discussed the raising of the commuter permit fees, as they have not been raised in five years.  Also, the committees are proposing that the on-street meters be raised form fifty cents an hour to seventy five cents an hour.  This would only apply to on street meters and not the pay stations in parking lots.  The council has been looking for ways to get back some of its surplus and they estimate that this would bring in a good amount of revenue.  They will prepare ordinances on this issue.