Downtown Parking District costs almost $800 per Spot per Year

Downtown parking is in the news. Tonight City Council will consider some goals.

Back in June, City Council reauthorized the Downtown Parking District Tax. The staff report on it is here. As best I understand it, here are the numbers.* Salem residents pay directly and indirectly almost $800 per spot.

The tax rate on downtown businesses is $130.69 per spot next year to maintain a parking spot in downtown Salem. The total tax levy of the district is $373,550 for the next fiscal year.

$97,289.41 is the cost for the Chemeketa Parkade (26.04%),
$57,282.55 for the Liberty Parkade (15.33%),
$161,088.23 for the Marion Square garage (43.12%).
Total number of spots is 2809.

The total cost to run the District next year is apparently $2,217,690 or $789.49 per spot. (The difference between $789.49 and $130.69 per spot must come out of the general fund, but I did not analyze this.) Over a 20 year life of a spot, at these rates a spot is worth $15,789.80.

*There may be other downtown parking not covered here - perhaps someone with a better understanding of downtown parking will chime in? The relationship between on-street and parkade parking is not entirely clear, for example.