Remember when the city asked Austinites if they wanted to pay for downtown parking on nights and weekends? Most people asked said "no," then the city went ahead and extended downtown metered parking hours anyway?
It turns out, that vote was not the end to the downtown parking debate.
Item 30 on Thursday's city council agenda would postpone extension of metered parking hours until January and provide more opportunities for Austinites to give their input on the plan in the meantime. (Any guess what they'll say?)
That could complicate the process of coming up with Austin's 2012 budget.
"Well, you know, we try to budget as best we can based on what council has approved. So we have budgeted staff and revenues associated with the extend parking meter hours. Because that's something that council did take action on and approved, that's what we need to do in terms of crafting our budget," Austin Budget Officer Ed Van Eenoo told KUT after a budget presentation last week.
The city estimated that extended metered parking would bring approximately $1 million more into the general fund for fiscal year 2012.
