“The rules apply to all of us,” UPD Chief Bill Watton said. “From the president of the school to the newest student, we are all required to have permits. Everybody is equal.”
UPD and campus records show the revenue brought in from parking permit fees and fines topped $4.8 million in 2011. Cindy Campbell, UPD associate director, said not one penny from parking fees and fines are pocketed by the department.
“One piece of information that I think is rarely known or understood is that none of the services or programs associated with parking and alternative modes of transit at Cal Poly are paid for with state tax or student tuition money,” Campbell said. “Parking Services is a self-supporting entity within the university.”
A lot has changed since 2001, when parking permits cost $36 per quarter. With more fees to Parking Services than ever before, they had no choice but to raise the prices of permits. The fees and fines collected by UPD Parking Services are put toward paying fees for 16 different uses. One of the biggest uses, which take hundreds of thousands, to even millions of dollars from Parking Services each year is the City Bus Program, which costs UPD Parking Services almost $400,000 last year.
“The SLO Transit ‘free’ bus ride program is not actually free,” Campbell said. “Cal Poly pays the annual contract for transit services to be provided to our students and employees within the SLO city limits through paid parking fines.”
The largest sum of money for one area paid for by Parking Services last year was the more than $2 million that went toward paying off debt services to Poly Canyon parking structure.
“No housing fees are used to pay for the parking structures — and no parking fees are used to pay for housing,” Watton said. “None of this is tuition-based or state taxes.”
The final $1 million brought in last year went to fees for commuter services, escort van operations, police dispatch services, facility services, operating expenses and more than $200,000 in mandated state surcharges.
For the first time in almost a decade, the parking permit cost has been the same for the past three years.
“It’s been static for a few years,” Campbell said, “it is likely however, whether it is sooner rather than later, that we can always expect the fee will go up.”
“The question is when,” Watton said. “That is based on all of these projections and all we have to do to make ends meet.”
Each year, budgetary information is gathered and interpreted into projections for the year ahead, called “pro formas.” The yearly pro forma is what indicates if UPD Parking Services is going to need to boost or lower their yearly budget — and that is what makes the cost of fees and fines fluctuate.
“Since I’ve been at Poly, the fees have been the same” biological sciences sophomore Loren Davis said. “Yeah, they are super expensive, but I can handle it for now. If they do hike the prices again, I’d be pretty unhappy.”
However, in past years, the fees and fines have climbed steadily — whether it be a $10 or a $30 jump.
Given the budgetary history of UPD Parking Services, the stagnant parking prices can raise questions.
Watton said by sacrificing a few things, they have been successful in not having to raise the fees and fines for now.
“That was a choice that was made because so many fees were going up,” Watton said. “We decided as a university that we would do without certain things; for example, making our squad cars last a little longer. Everybody has to give up something to sacrifice, and we at the university police are no different.”
As difficult as it may be for students to justify the costs, Campbell said it all is necessary.
“We do try to be fiscally conservative, we have to be,” she said. “We’re not here as a private enterprise, we’re here as a service to the university.”