CARTA will make very slight reductions in service and instead zero in on bringing in more revenue through increased parking meter rates, vehicle sponsorships and other means, transit agency officials said this morning.

Due to high diesel fuel prices, the Chattanooga Area Regional Tranportation Authority anticipates a budget shortfall of about $1 million for the current fiscal year, which began July 1. In order to help balance its budget, the board this morning approved parking meter rate increases that will be phased in starting in late August.

The rate hikes are expected to bring another $400,000 in revenue for the agency.

About 50 percent of the 1,842 on-street meters downtown cost 25 cents an hour with a two-hour maximum. Under the changes passed by the board this morning, most of the meters will be 75 cents per hour with a two-hour cap.

This will be the first parking meter change in about 20 years, said Tom Dugan, CARTA’s executive director.

Mr. Dugan said CARTA plans eventually to increase the parking meter rate to one dollar per hour, although he said he does not know when that change would take effect.

CARTA officials said they hope the rate increases will bring in more money and also make people who have been parking for hours and hours at meters use CARTA-managed parking lots and garages instead. Mr. Dugan said people who feed the same meter all day are breaking city law.

But Dr. Warren Mackey, a CARTA board member and Hamilton County commissioner, voted against the parking meter rate increases, saying that it would hurt working people who use the meters downtown.

“In support of just working-class people, it’s troubling,” he said.

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.

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