Increased parking assessment won’t fix parking utility deficit

City aiming to collect on maybe $1 million in outstanding tickets. 

A decision today expected from La Crosse’s board of public works on a special tax for downtown businesses. 

Property owners in the downtown area have paid a special parking assessment for decades.

This year, that assessment has increased to nearly $110,000.

That amount, however, still leaves the parking utility with a revenue shortfall.

It’s a problem parking utility coordinator Jim Flottmeyer says his department will fix. Part of that equation will be parking enforcement but that won’t necessarily mean more enforcement.

“Mostly, at this time, we’ve looked at the collections aspect of it,” Flottmeyer said. “Getting the ramps so they run more efficient. Getting the enforcement side.

“You know, part of all that technology is to make that more efficient.”

The city has recently identified what could be more than million dollars in outstanding parking tickets from just the last three years.

In collecting those overdue parking tickets, the city won’t go after the really old ones that may not come with up-to-date driver info.

“So let’s just move on from the stuff we can’t collect or we don’t think we can collect,” Flottmeyer said, “and now, really concentrate on the data we know is good from here forward and drive that revenue stream.”