San Francisco Transit Officials To Consider Parking Meter Rate Hike
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors is expected to discuss raising parking meter rates at Tuesday's meeting.
Officials are considering a 25 cent rate hike for all meters throughout the city to replace a credit and debit card transaction fee at city parking meters, after Visa raised objections to the fee.
Visa said the 27 cent fee approved in July of last year violated the city's credit card processing agreement with Bank of America Merchant Services (BAMS).
"The continued collection of the $0.27 fee in violation of these rules runs the risk of the SFMTA losing access to BAMS credit card payment/processing services," SFMTA staffers said in a report (.pdf).
Without the rate hike, the SFMTA would lose $6.2 million.
If approved, the rate hike would apply to all parking meter customers, regardless of how they pay. The rate hike would take effect 31 days after being approved by the board of directors.
According to the SFMTA, the last citywide parking meter rate hike took place in 2009.
Tim Fang is a digital producer for CBS San Francisco. A native of the Bay Area, follow him on Twitter @fangtj.
