Keene City Council Votes to Raise Parking Rates 50%, Declines to Raise Fines or Extend Enforcement Hours

It could have been worse. A few weeks ago at the Finance, Organization, and Personnel committee meeting, the councilors voted 4-1 to raise parking meter rates by 50% and also to increase the long-term parking permit fees. The good news is they rejected the city parking department’s request for later enforcement hours as well as increasing parking fines. The full council voted 14-1 on the same recently. The one dissenting vote was not because the dissenter, outgoing councilor Kris Roberts is against parking enforcement – he’s mad the enforcers didn’t get everything they wanted from the council.

By no means is this a pro-liberty decision by the Keene city council, but perhaps the hundreds of petition signatures by business owners downtown and their clients had some impact on the council’s ultimate decision to grow the parking department’s collections, but not to the level the enforcers wanted.