Parking economics
PG has a story today warning that there is no sign a parking rate decrease is in the works even though the parking tax is set to lowered a bit next year.
There is a story hidden in that article. The parking sales tax rate increased from 31% to 50% (a 61% increase) in recent years as a stop gap way to generate revenue for the city. But if you look at the time series of parking tax revenue, the $$ collected went up from 30.9 million in 2003 to 50.3 million in 2005: a nearly idential 62% increase. That pretty much is the definition of inelastic demand. When you factor in the higher gas prices of recent years it really has been much more expensive to commute into work in the city. Yet the revenue numbers indicate there has not been any decrease in parking utilization.
What does this say to all the people who predicted people would not come into the city because of the higher parking prices? and for other reasons casinos are in the news today. I am wondering how each of the proposed venues will impact both parking demand and parking supply downtown.
There is a story hidden in that article. The parking sales tax rate increased from 31% to 50% (a 61% increase) in recent years as a stop gap way to generate revenue for the city. But if you look at the time series of parking tax revenue, the $$ collected went up from 30.9 million in 2003 to 50.3 million in 2005: a nearly idential 62% increase. That pretty much is the definition of inelastic demand. When you factor in the higher gas prices of recent years it really has been much more expensive to commute into work in the city. Yet the revenue numbers indicate there has not been any decrease in parking utilization.
What does this say to all the people who predicted people would not come into the city because of the higher parking prices? and for other reasons casinos are in the news today. I am wondering how each of the proposed venues will impact both parking demand and parking supply downtown.
2 Comments:
As we know, hordes of businesses left the city after the OPT tax (now Emergency and Municipal Services Tax) was raised from $10 per year to an oppressive $52 per year. So maybe parking demand actually went up...?!
that is just stupid...
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