Richmond budget proposes small increases in fees for parking, recycling and trash pickup
Parking tickets in Richmond would get a little more costly under the budget proposal released last month by Mayor Danny Avula, which raises the fee for a standard ticket from $25 to $30.
Parking in city-owned space — even if you’re following the rules — would also become slightly more expensive. The charge for on-street parking would rise from $2 an hour to $2.50 an hour. Similar increases are proposed for city-owned parking lots and garages, which see a $1 bump in the hourly parking rate and a $5 increase for the monthly rate.
The budget plan envisions the city’s parking enterprise budget — the special fund where parking revenue is collected and spent — to rise from $17 million in the current budget to $18.5 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
For a higher tier of parking tickets that involve a vehicle impeding sidewalks, driveways or fire hydrants instead of only exceeding time limits, the cost would go from $40 to $50.
It would also cost more to have workers haul away household trash and recycling, according to the budget ordinance introduced by the mayor.
The recycling fee would rise from $2.99 per month to $4.33 per month. The solid waste charge would increase from $23.75 per month to $24.75.
The higher recycling and solid waste fees — both of which are included in monthly utility bills — would be assessed in addition to planned increases in gas, water and wastewater rates that would add almost $13 per month to the average residential bill.
And while the proposed budget doesn’t raise the city’s real estate tax rate, it anticipates 6% growth in real estate assessments this year. The tax rate would not change, but that growth would translate to higher tax bills for many Richmonders as their property values continue to rise.
At the City Council’s first budget work session on Monday afternoon, interim Chief Administrative Officer Sabrina Joy-Hogg said the “modest” fee increases are necessary to cover the city’s costs to provide trash, recycling and parking services.
Joy-Hogg said the city is “nowhere close” to charging trash pickup fees that fully cover the city’s costs of providing the service. It’s a similar situation with curbside recycling, she said, a service the city contracts out to the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority.
“The city has been charging only $2.99 for many, many years. We are not breaking even with this contract,” Joy-Hogg said.
The rise in parking fees will help cover the costs of maintaining the city’s 10 garages and 11 surface lots, Joy-Hogg said, as well as “parking management across the city.”
The council didn’t spend much time on the fee increases at Monday’s work session, but members offered their initial reactions to Avula’s budget.
