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Front Page » Top Stories » Dont Touch Parking Meters State Told

Dont Touch Parking Meters State Told

Written by on June 13, 2013
  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
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By Meisha Perrin
Even though a Florida Department of Transportation-promoted bill to collect 50% of the revenue from parking meters along state-owned rights of way was killed because of a Sun Life Stadium funding provision being attached, the Miami Parking Authority is continuing its efforts to ensure that the meters portion of the bill doesn’t pass when it returns next year.

And according to authority CEO Arthur Noriega, the transportation department hadn’t even done its due diligence before seeking to take revenues from municipalities through the proposed legislation.

The state doesn’t know how much revenue it would make from it, he told authority board members last week, and it also didn’t research how much the measure would affect municipalities across the state, including the City of Miami.

Back in February, Mr. Noriega had said that the legislation would have a more than $2 million financial impact on the city, which he said didn’t have the resources to handle a 50% reduction in parking meter income in those locations.

Since then, Mr. Noriega said, he had found legal representation to lobby on behalf of the city and authority, but in the end the bill died during the legislative session as it had been attached to the Sun Life Stadium bill, intended to determine the future of a stadium upgrade.

That bill was never taken up for a vote by House Speaker Will Weatherford, thus killing renovation plans to the former Dolphin Stadium — and the department’s bill as well.

Still, according to Mr. Noriega, that doesn’t mean that the battle is ended.

The transportation department still wants to seek that meter income, he said, and it will come up again next year.

Thus, the authority will continue to lobby against the change, as well as doing its own due diligence to show the department why it believes the legislation wouldn’t work.

If the parking authority shows the state how much it spends on keeping up state roadways where the meters are versus the revenue that the meters return, he said, it will be beneficial to the authority.To read the entire issue of Miami Today online, subscribe to e-MIAMI TODAY, an exact digital replica of the printed edition.

  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
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