The Bee's Tony Bizjak reports that city officials are considering adding a facet to the downtown arena financing plan: a $1-$3 surcharge for non-Sacramento residents parking in one of the downtown lots during an event night. It's unclear if the surcharge will be up for inclusion in the plan the City Council will see on February 28. Based on Bizjak's report, the city staff seems non-committal, though the Chamber of Commerce has a current phone survey out asking about the idea.
It's unclear exactly how much revenue the surcharge would bring in. The location is going to make public transit more sensible, and this surcharge won't work for folks who find street parking. Plus, most cars entering the structures will have two or more folks inside, and a good portion will come from within Sacramento city limits. But any revenue helps.
As a Yolo resident, I would be quite happy to pay a $3 surcharge to park downtown and watch Sacramento Kings basketball in a new facility.
0 recs | 36 comments
Where To Draw The Border
Maybe they should make it a surcharge for non-Sacramento COUNTY residents. If we say this is a regional arena, then why charge non-city residents more? I’m in Folsom, but therefore still part of Sac County. And they are MY Kings. And it will be MY arena – as much as if I were a Sac city resident. Just a thought.
Darren King - February 18, 2012
Budgets
The Sacramento County budgets aren’t redirecting the $9 million in parking revenue to an upfront lease payment from a parking operator — the city budget is.
Tom Ziller - February 18, 2012
Well if it's your team and your arena just as much as a Sac city resident
Why didn’t your city help foot the bill for the new ESC? Not trying to sound accusatory, but if the region benefits, the region should pay. Right now the city is already doing their part to pay.
jveezy - February 18, 2012
Good point jveezy.
If an outside city doesn’t help, then why should its residents be excluded if a surcharge is added? I am from Placer County, so I am not a Sacramento City resident nor Sacramento County resident. I don’t have a problem with paying a little be more to go to a Kings game. My only hope is that additional fee will help to satisfy the people of Sacramento, who feel like they are taking the whole burden.
Slam_Dunk - February 18, 2012
I don't mean to point fingers either.
I’m actually moving to Folsom pretty soon (from well outside the area) and I’ll be going to games often. I just think this entire deal has come down to people that benefit putting some money into the process.
I don’t think it’ll satisfy the more vocal opponents. The Bee article is already full of people bitching that they’re never going to go downtown if they have to pay extra parking on nights when the Kings are playing. They were already complaining about having parking prices increased by private operators.
Thankfully these people won’t matter as much as long as the numbers make sense. If 1,000 people threaten not to go downtown, they’ll be countered by 18,000 that are already downtown simply by being at a Kings game. These are people who bitch that there isn’t a reason to go downtown anyways and then bitch again when the city attempts to move one of the biggest of Sacramento’s attractions into the largest undeveloped space downtown.
jveezy - February 18, 2012
These people you speak of
that are bitching over at the Sacbee site do not really matter anyways. Why? Because if you have nothing better to do then bitch about a 1 to 3 dollar surcharge for parking ON a Sacbee website forum, then clearly:
A. They have no friends. Nobody to go out with.
B. They have no job. No funds to go downtown with.
C. They have no life. No reason to leave the house or mother’s basement.
ridingthebench - February 19, 2012
I agree with you.
Darren King - February 18, 2012
As an out-of-towner
I’d be down with this. It makes sense as a way to perhaps appease some of the anti-ESC crowd, and it’s obviously such a small surcharge that it wouldn’t deter anyone from attending events. Obviously not clear exactly how much it could raise, but this sounds good to me.
Christina_J - February 18, 2012
Yolo county!
Nah I try to get dropped off when I go to games any so I can get tanked. Wouldn’t bother me anyway even though I’m right over the bridge in West Sac.
Allbenji - February 18, 2012 via mobile
I hope an enterprising entrepreneur ...
… gets a water taxi going. Someone tried to set up a commute one near the bridge last year but got shut down because he didn’t have the right permits.
Tom Ziller - February 18, 2012
Or just cut out the middle man
Heck you can get to the game and tailgate at the same time!
wallywagon11 - February 18, 2012
The Anti-Arena or CAVE people...
will demand nothing but a 100% privately financed arena in Natomas.
That idea was used nearly 30 years ago and the CAVE people back then didn’t even want that too.
SacTownMike - February 18, 2012
A parking surcharge is never about who is driving, that wouldn’t be feasible. If they went down this road they’d have to do it by your car registration with a sticker.
wallywagon11 - February 18, 2012
Really?
That seems less feasible. Checking driver’s licenses seems much easier, even if you’ll get some cheap folks trying to work around it. Maybe they can toss a sticker on season ticket holder parking passes, but I wouldn’t think that’d be an option for single-game entrants.
Tom Ziller - February 19, 2012
People don’t always get an address change and a new license when the move.
Widowwolf - February 19, 2012
But your legally your supposed to.
“You must report a change of address to DMV within 10 days of the change.” -DMV.CA.GOV
And lets face it. With the state of California’s economy, taxes, etc, if your moving INTO California from say… Nevada or Arizona, you must not be too concerned about money. Let alone a 1 dollar surcharge.
ridingthebench - February 19, 2012
I am speaking more of an Inter-town move
Widowwolf - February 19, 2012
I don't think you even need to deal with the sticker stuff.
I mentioned this in the other thread, where I live the cities and towns have their own beaches where parking is free for residents that have their car registered in that town or city. I think for the garage surcharge, you could just have put out the sign on event nights that give the separate prices for city residents and non-city residents, and if someone wants to pay the lower fee as a city resident, they show their vehicle registration. Car registrations are updated at least every year (and should be when you move), as opposed to licenses being updated far less frequently, so there should be less issues with it being out-of-date. A heavy majority of people parking on event nights are likely to be from outside the city and will just pay the higher fee without anything needing to be checked, so it shouldn’t cause a traffic mess or anything. I guess it kind of sucks though for the people that live in Sac whose friends all live in E.G. or Folsom and they always have to be the driver on game nights.
AnotherStupidSN - February 21, 2012
The question that the council has to ask isn't just whether a resident from outside of Sacramento would be willing to pay extra to go to a game
but also whether a meaningful number of residents from outside of Sacramento would be willing to dine or shop downtown at whatever shops and restaurants there are downtown even though they will have to pay an event surcharge. This phone survey doesn’t won’t really indicate that, they’d need to have some other analysis on it.
wallywagon11 - February 18, 2012
won’twallywagon11 - February 18, 2012
Logistics
How would they actually determine whether you’re a Sacramento resident or not? I’m all for the idea but I just don’t know how they would actually go about implementing this. It’s not like people walk around with their Sacramento ID cards.
Maybe something to do with your credit card address when you buy tickets.
jveezy - February 18, 2012
And it’s not whether you have a ticket, it’s whether you parked in one of the lots that night.
wallywagon11 - February 18, 2012
Right.
I’m not saying they would charge you when you pay for the ticket. Just something printed on your ticket that says “Sacramento Resident” so that you could flash it when you pay for parking to get your discount/avoidance of surcharge.
jveezy - February 18, 2012
Just flash your car registration, instead.
AnotherStupidSN - February 21, 2012
Hugely Discriminatory!!!!!! And I live in Sacramento City Limits. The surcharge is another
yet another desperate gimmick by the ESC planners who are hella short on private investment in this thing.
Natomaser - February 18, 2012
Let's wait until the numbers come out
before we deem private investment “hella short”.
Also how else do you expect them to try to get the rest of the region to contribute to a building the rest of the region will use?
jveezy - February 18, 2012
You’re right. I think they should put the surcharge on every car on event nights.
kangsfan - February 18, 2012
Discriminatory?
There are lots of things that are cheaper based on where you live.
Tom Ziller - February 19, 2012
What does that mean?
Natomaser - February 19, 2012
It means that cities and towns charge "outsider" fees for stuff a lot, and it's not a big deal.
AnotherStupidSN - February 21, 2012
Yep
To play in the Sacramento baseball league they check your addresses, if you are outside the city, it’s an extra $15 dollars or so per player
prowseinthehouse - February 19, 2012
As a placer resident and proponent of public transportation
I think this would do two things to improve Sacramento. First to provide additional funding for the ESC/ general fund protection. Second, is to encourage the use of light rail, which is how I’d likely go to most games if this thing gets done. It’s a reasonable idea but like wally has already stated, they’d need to figure out a quick method for determining who is/ is not a Sacramento resident. If it’s a sticker, how much would it cost to distribute them to every Sacramento resident?
kangsfan - February 18, 2012
UPDATE
“A parking surcharge on non-city residents is not, however, part of the city’s still-forming financing plan for a $387 million arena, a top city official said Saturday. (An earlier version of this story stated that Sacramento officials were currently considering imposing the fee.)”
I really wish some (CAVE) people would just be patient and see what the term sheets are like first before jumping to conclusions.
SacTownMike - February 18, 2012
Silverbacks don't live in CAVES!
Natomaser - February 18, 2012
big ol truck
I would be happy to pay the sur charge if it will help get the ESC Built. I just hope they have some open lots for parking as well. Big trucks have a hell of a time fitting in the compact parking spaces in most structures. )o:
Boot Scoot Baby - February 18, 2012
Chiming in late here
As a Placer County resident, I welcome any initiative that has me paying my fair share. If it comes via a visitor’s fee on parking, so be it.
section214 - February 21, 2012
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