MORGANTOWN – “We’re not trying to make more and more money every year,” Morgantown Parking Authority Chairman Charles McEwuen said Wednesday. “We’re just trying to provide a service.”
The comment came as McEwuen and three new members of the MPA’s oversight board got a first look at the authority’s preliminary fiscal year 2027 budget numbers.
The budget, as currently calculated, projects $4,016,000 in revenues – which includes $1.3 million in carryover.
The remaining $2.7 million is broken down into various revenue sources.
As for the largest line items, the MPA is anticipating $500,000 through its 525 metered parking spaces. It’s expecting another $450,000 will be collected in fines.
The Spruce Street Garage is budgeted to bring in $410,000 through a combination of parking permits and gate revenue. The University Avenue Garage is expected to generate $435,000, and the Wharf Garage is budgeted at $130,000.
The various downtown surface lots combine to make up the overwhelming majority of the remaining $800,000 or so. The largest of which, at 77 spaces, is Lot B at the corner of Fayette and Chestnut Streets. That lot alone is expected to generate about a quarter of surface lot revenue, at $220,000.
Lot B is in the minority in that it’s actually owned by the MPA. Five of the nine downtown lots are leased from various property owners. For example, the Spruce Street lot across from the Morgantown Public Library is leased from the Spruce Street United Methodist Church.
All told, the parking authority anticipates making $140,000 in lease payments in the upcoming fiscal year.
It was noted during the meeting that losing access to those lots would dramatically change the parking situation downtown.
“I think addressing that and making that known to the public would probably go a long way for some PR, because people just think, well, it’s the parking authority,” MPA member Scott Frederick said. “So, if somebody gets a ticket, you know, hey, we don’t own this. We have to pay for it. You need to pay your share. I think that would go a long way to educating the public, so they don’t just hate the parking authority.”
Mark Downs is one of the new additions to the MPA as Morgantown City Council’s representative. He observed that much like the city, the parking authority has been operating on a flat revenue curve year over year.
MPA Executive Director Dana McKenzie said the only real way to change that trend would be to increase parking costs and/or ticket amounts.
“Some years do better, some years not so much, but if we can keep these contracts going with these lease folks and everything else downtown, then we can keep rates where they are. If we want to see these numbers increase – because we’re definitely getting the traffic every day – we would have to look at rate increases, increasing our fines,” he said. “We have tried through the years to keep it as low as possible … that’s why our numbers stay where they are. I don’t know that we need to increase anything.”
Maintaining a significant budget carryover, which includes consistent contributions to the MPA’s contingency fund – $600,000 currently earmarked in the upcoming budget – is another factor in keeping rates and fines in check, McKenzie said, explaining constant investment in the upkeep of facilities, like the nearly 50-year-old University Avenue parking garage, is yet another.
McEwuen picked up on that point.
“I think sometimes when people look at our budget and they see how much we have in reserves, they go, ‘Why do you have all that money? You could have lower rates. Well, that’s because periodically we have to spend a whole lot of money on things,” he said. “It’s there for a reason.”
Under the city’s umbrella, MPA is what’s known as an enterprise fund, meaning it’s self-sustaining and gets no financial support from the city’s general fund. The administrative support the MPA receives from city hall – human resources, etc. – it pays for. The yearly cost of that administrative assistance will increase from $41,000 to $66,000 in the coming fiscal year.
“All of the funds for facilities, improvements, equipment purchases, vehicle purchases, maintenance, payroll and everything else comes from revenue generated by parking,” McEwuen said. “Our mission is to support downtown commerce, and we do that by trying to provide parking for everyone in a fair and equitable manner.”
According to MPA’s website, the authority maintains a staff of 14, including five enforcement officers, who service a total of 2,202 parking spaces in the downtown area. Since July 1, 2010, the MPA has also worked with the Morgantown Police Department to monitor parking in the city’s neighborhoods.
At $1,320,430 personnel costs are the largest of the agency’s expenditures in the agency’s projected budget. Other expenses include contracted services ($940,800); commodities ($104,800); capital outlay ($600,100) and contingencies ($600,000). The document also anticipates $265,000 in capital improvements and just under $400,000 in building and lot maintenance projects.
