Privatizing Parking Meters in City of Houston's Future?

I was a part of a blogger conversation with Houston Mayor Annise Parker last week, and there was much discussion about they city's budget. I asked what creative solutions were being looked at, short of furloughing city employees, A followup question was asked about the possibility of privatizing parking meters to get an influx of cash.

I researched that scenario, and found out that Chicago leased its parking meters to a private company for for 75 years and a $1.2 billion immediate influx of cash that completely erased the city's budget deficit. Not everyone has been happy with the deal. A little googling on this brings up many hits, on both sides of the issue.

Washington, DC privatized their meters, in part, to upgrade their severely out of date equipment that was losing revenue.

The Los Angeles City Council recently voted to spend $500,000 to consider privatizing its parking meters and city garages, as one solution to getting out of its massive budget problems.

One complaint by consumers about privatized meters, is that parking rates rise, but I have to wonder if they would anyway, because of city budget deficits.

If the City of Houston goes this route, the important thing is the deal - who sets the rates, how long is the lease, how does the cash deal compare to revenues vs. expenses if the city maintained the meters over the same amount of time, etc.

I also read with interest this morning, about a city in Florida that has a parking meter system that you can pay for via cell phone. You set up your account ahead of time, and then text in your parking spot when you park your car. A text message is sent to you when your time is about to expire. This is a fabulous idea that I hope gets implemented in more cities. My question: what are the costs of this system and who absorbs the cost?

Which leads me to a related transportation note. I was still able to use my EZ tag to park in a lot at Hobby airport this past week, even though the system is being canceled, due to lack of revenues. Does anyone know when that program gets yanked? It's been super convenient for me, and I blame its failure on the lack of advertisement to EZ tag holders about this option.