East Lansing city officials will debate a possible raise in parking fees tonight.

The extra 10 cents per half-hour would pay for the entire parking system budget for the 2002-03 year.

City officials say daytime parking numbers have fallen in the city while parking has remained stagnant in the evenings.

Another factor are the debts new parking facilities have left the city.

The Charles Street Garage totaled $12.5million in construction costs.

Rates had been raised two years ago to help pay for its construction, but the debt has not been paid off.

“If you have got inflation every year and you don’t have more customers, you are going to have to increase your rates,” East Lansing Finance Director Gary Murphy said.

The number of motorists using daytime parking also has been dropping off for the past two years.

Since last year, the number of people parking in the downtown has decreased between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., said Dan O’Conner, parking administrator.

O’Conner links the decrease in the city’s daytime parking to MSU opening more parking lots and the improved performance of the Capital Area Transportation Authority bus system.

But parking in East Lansing during the evening hours hasn’t changed.

Several of the garages become free after certain hours in the evening.

While parking fees have slowed, city officials are not certain shifting to the increase is wise.

Several are concerned with what the raise would do for business and visitors to the downtown.

“There is a lot of construction and I am concerned that an increase right now could deter some people from utilizing the downtown,” Mayor Pro Tem Sam Singh said.

The city needs to have an excellent reason to raise parking fees, Councilmember Bill Sharp said.

Parking had been raised to a similar amount two years ago, and Sharp said so far it hasn’t been proven to him the rates need to be raised again.

Mayor Mark Meadows is reluctant to vote for the increase as well, he said.

“Raising our rates, even though our rates might be smaller than everyone else’s, is bad public relations,” he said.

The new facilities never were meant to be revenue generators, he added.

“We have the cheapest permit-parking rates in the region, but just a general get-in and get-out raise, I have to be convinced,” Meadows said.