Somerville parkers catching on as ticket revenues drop

By Danielle Dreilinger, Globe correspondent

When dramatic parking changes went into effect in Somerville over the past year — resident permits required through most of the city and extended meter hours in popular squares — angry drivers complained that the city was trying to squeeze revenue in the form of parking tickets.

Whatever the goal, the results tell a different tale. Mayor Joe Curtatone’s proposed fiscal year 2011 budget now projects a $1 million decrease in parking fines, from a projected $8.2 million in fiscal year 2010, which ends June 30, to $7.2 million in fiscal 2011, which begins July 1.

That fiscal 2010 figure is a drop from the original projection of $8.6 million. Officials adjusted their expectations when the resident parking change was delayed from the summer of 2009 to January 2010, city spokesman Michael Meehan wrote in an e-mail.

Drivers learned quickly: The number of tickets issued is down 7 percent from fiscal 2009, Meehan wrote. Changing over to new bill processing software also helped. ‘‘We changed the regulations to create a more sensible traffic pattern and incentivize people to register their cars in Somerville,’’ Meehan said in a phone call. The city succeeded: 4,424 new cars were registered in fiscal 2010 for a total of 37,936.

Excise tax revenue exceeded the original $4 million projection by about $300,000. The fiscal 2011 projection is slightly higher, than that, at $4.4 million.

‘‘We make less money on tickets and we made more money on excise taxes,’’ Meehan summarized.

That said, hidden in the small print of the mayor’s proposed budget are a few added additional sources of parking income. The city hopes to net $300,000 in delinquent parking tickets, a budget item that didn’t exist last year; $100,000 in towing charges, up from almost $75,000; and $95,000 in parking fine surcharges, a nearly 50 percent increase from fiscal 2010.