Suggestions for parking policy at Willamette University

1. Price parking permits to reflect more accurately the true cost to the University of maintaining and increasing, the parking supply.
2. Adjust student financial aid and employee benefits to take into account hardships that #1 will cause.
• A preliminary suggestion for employee benefit adjustment is presented below.  It is roughly revenue-neutral, i.e. costs the university no more than the status-quo, and encourages interested employees not to use campus parking.
• I'm sure that appropriate ways to ameliorate hardships to students can be found.
3. I believe that the university is currently subsidizing parking on campus.  Paying people to use a limited resource is a bad idea. Removing the subsidy will tend to reduce use of on-campus parking, leaving more space for those who must use it.  The below is a proposal to remove that subsidy with a minimum of pain.

A modest proposal to encourage alternate transportation at Willamette and to help alleviate parking shortages:

I've commuted daily to Willamette by bicycle for 20 years (since I signed on in '86), so I am obviously biased.  Still, I find it disappointing that the apparent translation of "Non nobis solem nati sumus" is "Don't mess with my parking space" - particularly when this comes from an otherwise seemingly progressive faculty. I gather that this is the translation from various pieces of evidence. For example, the lone question raised at a recent faculty meeting, when you described the plans for Winter street ("How will this affect on-street parking?").

At Willamette, we have a cafeteria plan (as I understand the term) for family benefits. I can choose between a non-taxable paid health insurance premium for my family, or a similar taxable amount of salary. I have learned that now parking benefits can be offered in the same way:

"the Internal Revenue code allows employers to offer their workers a tax-free benefit of up to $170 per month for parking and up to $65 per month for transit passes or commercial vanpool services.  However, prior to passage of the [Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, effective this year], the Internal Revenue Code prohibited employers from offering employees the choice between a tax-free parking benefit and a taxable salary equivalent.  Now, employers are able to offer their employees the choice".
      This is from "The Commuter" newsletter from Mid-Valley Rideshare, a Salem Public Works service.

"... City staff are also available to help employers with transportation and parking problems at their work sites.  Call (503)588-6211 for more details."

If Willamette were to acknowledge this subsidy as a non-taxable parking benefit, we could offer an alternative taxable salary increase. In exchange, an employee might agree not to park on campus from 8 to 6 on weekdays, or more simply, agree to be ineligible for a parking permit (I haven't had one in years). To cover emergencies, we already offer 5-day permits for a modest fee.

Now of course I like this idea because it would give me a modest increase in pay, though probably far less than the $170/month cited above.  However, I believe it would be financially advantageous for Willamette if faculty and staff could be persuaded to use it (and there's no cost to Willamette if they don't).  I'm not the only person who gets here without parking a car on campus, and I believe more would do so, given an incentive.  Most likely the direct salary costs would be much less than the costs we are currently paying for our parking - and certainly far less than the cost of freeing up a space by building a new one.

: mjanebawillamette.edu