SPOKANE, Wash. – On Tuesday, Nov. 1, the City of Spokane will begin charging drivers who pay for parking via the ParkMobile app a 35-cent transaction fee per session.
In a release, Parking Services explain the department suffered a $3.9 million loss in revenue since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. The department is self-funded and is not covered by taxpayer dollars, relying on on-street parking, commercial permits, reservations, residential, and violation fees for revenue. The department is responsible for hardware, technology infrastructure, system management, enforcement, and neighborhood parking complaint responses and relies on that revenue to maintain staff and operations.
The department took several major hits, including the suspension of on-street paid parking between March and May in 2020, as well as replacing over 70 paid stalls with free 10-minute parking stalls to accommodate curbside services, which skyrocketed during the pandemic.
“Parking services has encountered the perfect storm with the impacts from the pandemic and annual debt service,” says Steve MacDonald, Community & Economic Development Director. “We have had to dig deep to find solutions and are passing through mobile app transaction fees, as most other cities do. We will consider other revenue options as we continue to make up for the deficit.”
Fees for app payments are common in most cities and considered a convenience to be paid by the user. Parking Services cites Spokane’s quick adoption of mobile app payments as the reason it was not already adopted.
By passing the fee onto users instead of absorbing it, the City will be able to invest 10 cents of each fee towards department expenses. The projected result is a $252,000 positive impact for the operations budget, greatly helping to make up for the deficit.
In practice, this means the 35-cent fee will be charged per session, in addition to the hourly rate. If a customer parks at a 2-hour meter and pays for one hour with the app, they will be charged $1.20 + 35 cents for a total of $1.55.
However, if the customer extends the time at the meter through the app before the hour is up, there will not be an additional fee charged, as it is part of a single session.
Debit or credit card users and those paying with coins will not be charged additional fees.
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