A Council committee last week moved to restore proposed funding cuts to the Bethesda Urban Partnership. The Council's three-member Transportation Committee voted to take $150,000 from the Bethesda Parking Lot District to cover the cuts in County Executive Isiah Leggett's recommended budget for FY 2016. The chair of the Partnership's board of directors said the proposed $113,000 cut to core services would mean downtown Bethesda could go without holiday decorations, routine sidewalk repairs, sign maintenance and other BUP services over the next year. The Council committee voted to take $150,000 from the Bethesda PLD to cover those core services and 2 percent wage adjustments for BUP employees. The Bethesda PLD, meanwhile, still faces its own fiscal challenges. The fund is used to pay for upkeep and operation of Bethesda's public parking lots and garages and is dangerously close to being out of money, according to a Council report earlier this year. To address the issue, the Transportation Committee agreed with Leggett's budget recommendations for changing where PLD funding goes: In sync with OLO's recommendations, the Executive is recommending a plan that has five components: (1) zeroing-out the PLD property taxes; (2) retaining all fine revenue collected in the PLDs for use by the PLDs; (3) eliminating the transfers to the TMDs; (4) transferring the funding of the Bethesda Circulator from the Bethesda PLD to the Mass Transit Fund; and (5) reducing Urban District transfers to a degree, offset by the reintroduction of baseline transfers of General Funds to the Urban Districts. What the PLDs would lose in PLD tax revenue they would largely recoup through the other four actions. To ensure the Bethesda PLD doesn't run out of money in case of a sharp decrease in parking fee revenue next year, the committee agreed to transfer $3 million from the Silver Spring PLD into the Bethesda account. It'll be the second straight year the Council has moved money from the Silver Spring parking reserve to the Bethesda one. Last year's loan was $1.5 million, which must be paid back to the Silver Spring PLD this year. Council staff expects the Bethesda PLD's financial condition to improve in the next few years thanks in part to a $1.7 million payment the county will make from its General Fund into the PLD fund to take up a portion of Garage 35 for the new 2nd District Police Station. The county also expects a $4.5 million payment in two years for the sale of its Lot 43 to a private developer. In FY 2018, new plans to charge for metered parking in lots and garages on Saturday could also help provide more parking revenue. Now, parking in county lots and garages on Saturday is free, while parking in curbside meters on Saturday requires payment. The $3 million "bridge loan" from the Silver Spring PLD would be paid back that same year.
Council Moves To Restore Funding For Bethesda Urban Partnership
