PORT TOWNSEND — While both the city and Jefferson County struggle to balance their budgets in the face of looming deficits next year, local lawmakers are reconsidering their subsidy of free parking at Fort Worden State Park.
County commissioners already have decided not to commit county funds to the free parking program during the 2005 fiscal year, taking their cue from the county Lodging Tax Advisory Committee.
Port Townsend City Council members have yet to discuss the issue until budget workshops next month.
However, opinions among the council members are deeply divided on whether the city can afford paying to keep parking free.
The county and city are part of a consortium that has paid into a fund to keep parking free at Fort Worden State Park for the past two years.
Since 2003, the state has levied $5 daily parking fees at most of its state parks, citing budget woes in Olympia.
Tourism officials in Port Townsend have maintained that the $5 parking fee at Fort Worden would severely damage the region’s tourism industry at a greater cost than the fee would generate.
But the days of subsidy funds from the city and county might be numbered.
Kessler plea
State Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, recently urged county commissioners to reconsider their decision to discontinue county support of free parking at Fort Worden.
In a message sent earlier this month, Kessler asked the commissioners to rethink the $10,000 request made by the Fort Worden Advisory Committee through its Free Parking Coalition subcommittee.
Kessler called the request “reasonable and a sensible investment for our economy.”
She reminded commissioners of an important role tourism plays in the county economy and that the region might lose Centrum, the Fort Worden-based center for arts and creativity.
In response, the commissioners expressed their support for the idea of free parking at the park, but stated that the responsibility rests with the state.
“Representative Kessler is in a better position to make the parking free,” said Commissioner Dan Titterness, R-Port Townsend.
