Milton council to introduce parking, water bill resolutions
Milton Town Council is set to introduce two resolutions that would task the finance committee with developing proposals to institute impact fees related to parking in downtown.
Council will discuss the resolutions at its 6:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 9 meeting at Milton library. In addition, council will discuss a third resolution aimed at encouraging residents to switch their water bill from paper to electronic. That particular measure would be developed by town administrative staff. With all three resolutions, council is asking for reports on or before council's Monday, Dec. 2 meeting.
Mayor John Collier said he did not have any comment on the resolutions at this time, adding that all three ideas need to be discussed publicly first.
The first resolution regarding parking is asking the finance committee to perform an analysis on what the revenue impacts would be on a parking impact fee of $1 per ticket sold for any show or event held within Milton town limits. This would include, but not be limited to, ticketed events at Milton Theatre, Milton Historical Society’s bus tours and Milton Garden Club’s garden tours.
The committee will be asked to develop a proposal to enact this fee by ordinance, which would be added to the town’s fee schedule, with the fee to be paid to the town at the end of each quarter. The resolution specifies an exception for entities that provide their own parking on their property, such as Dogfish Head and Milton Fire Department.
The second parking resolution would task the finance committee with an analysis of possible revenue that could be raised by a parking impact fee to all sales via retail merchant and/or hospitality establishment of one-half of 1% of gross sales. The committee would also develop ordinance language for such a fee that would be paid to the town every quarter.
The last of the resolutions would be an analysis by town staff to determine the cost of paper water bills, both in supplies and labor, versus the cost of online payments. Staff would also develop a proposal to offer a one-time $1 incentive as a credit on the bill of residents who choose to switch from printed bills to electronic bills.
All three resolutions are ideas related to ongoing discussions about the fiscal year 2025 budget, which includes a 34% property tax increase. Public comments during those discussions led council to begin considering new ways to raise revenue independent of property taxes, which is traditionally the town’s biggest revenue generator. The idea of an incentive to get residents to switch from paper to electronic water bills has been discussed by council during this year’s budget discussions. The idea of a parking fee related to businesses and their customers was brought up in the 2022 ad hoc parking committee report.
