Milton finance committee rejects parking proposals
The Milton Finance Committee is recommending town council not move forward with two proposals aimed at creating revenue through parking in the central business district.
At its Nov. 14 meeting, the committee rejected the two measures as written but recommended council make revisions to include language about a target amount of revenue the town intends to raise and to look further into the possibility of parking meters.
The committee’s recommendation will be sent to town council, which will have the option to accept the recommendation and either move forward with the proposals anyway, revise the proposals or not move forward at all.
The committee was debating two resolutions council sent for review. Under the first, the town would institute a parking impact fee for paid, ticketed events. The resolutions specifically mention events at Milton Theatre, Milton Historical Society’s bus tours and Milton Garden Club’s tours. The resolution specifies an exception for entities that provide parking on their property, such as Dogfish Head and Milton Fire Department.
The idea is that these organizations would add the fee to the price of tickets as a separate item. So, for example, if the fee is $1 and the theater charges $25 for an event, the ticket cost would be $26. The money raised by the fee would go into a separate reserve fund that would be solely dedicated to upgrading parking, which Chair Larry Savage described as being “like a savings account.”
The second resolution proposed a parking impact fee to all sales via retail merchant and/or hospitality establishments within downtown Milton. The resolution calls for that fee to be one-half of 1% of gross sales. Much like the events fee, this charge would be added onto existing sales and remitted to the town every quarter.
Committee member Joel Berlingheri said of the first resolution that the theater would be the only real contributing property, since Dogfish Head would be exempt and the nonprofits don’t hold many events. He said he did not think this was the best approach.
Fellow committee member Perry Higgs said, “I don’t see how that’s equitable.”
Regarding the second resolution, committee member David Moskowitz said, “I don’t like the gross receipts at all. Businesses have good years and bad years, and regardless, they’re paying taxes.”
However, he was the only yes vote on the events fee.
“I don’t like having to burden organizations with a charge per ticket, but it seems more targeted and fair to me. Maybe with a limit, but that seems like more of a fair way,” Moskowitz said.
Both Higgs and Berlingheri said they would have liked to see a defined revenue goal in the resolutions, so it was known how much the town was looking to raise.
Higgs said he also could not support the parking fee for retail businesses, given that the town has no way to collect the money or know how much is coming in, since the town would need sales figures from every business downtown to enforce the fee.
In addition, the committee had started discussions on these resolutions in October, and between then and the Nov. 14 meeting, town council agreed to lease the Milton Historical Society’s lot next to the Lydia Cannon Museum for parking. The town is planning to put in a pervious surface on the lot, as well as signage, in a plan town officials say will nearly double the amount of spaces downtown.
