Emma Dejong

Parking permit costs for the 2010-11 school year are not all final, but the residence hall parking decals will increase from the current $62.

“Residential lots are going to be $86,” said Dean Kattelmann, assistant vice president for facilities and services. “Commuter is still to be determined.”

Commuter lot decals are currently $120. The Parking and Traffic Committee would prefer to keep the same price, but an agreement with the Board of Regents has not yet been made.

“Everything but student residence hall parking we hope will stay the same,” said Jeri Kurtz, committee member and director of the Office of Institutional Research.

Kattelmann said with the current economic situation, more raises in the future are inevitable.

“I think this will be the last year that we can (avoid) a raise (for permits other than residential),” Kattelmann said. “I do think we should keep them the same this year.”

The committee asked that the residential permits cost more than $86, wanting to ease confusion for students by making different decals cost the same.

“At one point, the commuter fee and the resident fee were the same price,” Kattelmann said. “Originally we put in a request to change it to $120 because we wanted it to be the same as commuter. The Board of Regents said no because (USD residential decal fees are at $86).”

The increased fees will go toward various projects on campus.

“It’s to pay off future parking and current parking,” Kattelmann said.

The parking and traffic committee has estimated $910,409 in revenue for fiscal year 2010, and the estimations for operating expenses and project costs are $412,000 and $1,896,883 respectively.

To cover these costs, the committee uses reserve funds from past years.

Major projects planned to be completed by the fall semester will be the new Motor Pool lot on the north side of campus and the commuter lot south of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science building.

However, the BOR did not approve the lot north of Coughlin-Alumni Stadium or the lot next to the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center.

“We did not get approval to build (these lots),” Kattelmann said. “They said, ‘If you don’t have the money in hand, we can’t let you build.'”

Kattelmann said he does not think final prices for decals will be decided until June at the earliest. However, regardless of the chosen fees, the committee reminds students to not throw away their current decal, as the same tag will be used for next year. If students forget, there is a $20 replacement fee.

“All decals are personally assigned to you,” Kattelmann said.