Stamford Fiscal Committee Sees Losses in 24-hour Parking Garages

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The Stamford Board of Representatives Fiscal Committee passed a $176,500 additional appropriation to cover shortfalls in the Parking Management's Contracted Services from the extension of garage hours.

Director of Operations Ernie Orgera said the net revenue from the decision to stay open 24-hours-a-day had been negligible and, in fact, was costing the city money.

Orgera said the city was gaining about $1.7 million in revenue for the city annually, but would continue to see a loss in that revenue of approximately $176,500 due to the 24-hour cycle.

"These expenses are already in the 2013 budget," Orgera said. "The downtown area just keeps growing and growing. I think this was a move in the right direction."

Orgera said it actually cost more, but cuts had been made elsewhere, though he didn't go into detail.

"We're still making money," said Fiscal Committee Chairman Jay Fountain. "To say we're losing money is a misnomer. We're making over $1.5 million. That's pretty good. What we've done is changed the fees on parking violations and things like that to bring the parking back up."

The committee also discussed an increase in parking fees, an and . The idea to bring up the idea for consideration in the future is that there is real, tangible evidence that the move to stay open for 24 hours is costing the city more money—currently—than it's bringing in in revenue.

In the future, though, as Stamford continues to grow, the move may remain both beneficial to night owls and the city collecting the revenue.