Got meter money?

I don’t know about you, but I’m wondering how much of the additional revenue that the Philadelphia Parking Authority will collect from newly increased meter rates will go to Philadelphia schools.

Remember . . . six years ago, the Parking Authority was moved from local to state control on the promise that a more efficiently run agency could generate millions more in dollars that would be transferred to the Philadelphia School District?

A portion of the new savings – up to $45 million annually – would go to our schools. That was later revised to require that excess “on-street parking funds” beyond the first $25 million be transferred.

But funding hasn’t quite materialized as planned. In 2004, the authority provided a one-time transfer of $4 million to schools, spurring State Rep. James Roebuck last month to finally pose, “Where is the other money that was promised in 2001?”

Roebuck -- also chair of the House Education Committee – last month introduced a resolution that would require a legislative audit of the Authority (House Resolution 367 now sits in committee).

Although the Authority has yet to show that it’s managing money so much more efficiently that it can deliver on its failed financial promises, that hasn’t stopped it from pursuing even more revenue. On the recommendation of the City Planning Commission and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway Council, costs for parking at meters on a three-block stretch of the Parkway and streets in Center City from Market Street south to Walnut Street are now or due to double in price.

And get this – one newspaper reported that Linda Miller, senior director of facilities and public affairs for the Parking Authority, said the Authority doesn’t know how much revenue the new regulations are expected to bring in! Now that’s efficient, profit-minded fiscal management for you!

I think the local media should press the Authority a little harder to come up with an answer on expected revenues – at least so we’ll know how much more money our city’s chronically under-funded school system will continue to miss out on.