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Most of the free shuttles circulating Downtown could be eliminated, with visitors offered the first hour of parking free instead, under a proposal from the Downtown Tucson Partnership.

The changes are part of a bigger proposal by the private, non-profit partnership to take over some of the city's ParkWise responsibilities for Downtown parking.

The city is looking at changes in its parking program to bring in more money from the things people pay for — like parking Downtown — and cut costs on programs operating at a loss each year, like the shuttle.

City Manager Mike Hein said the proposal to turn some city parking authority over to the partnership hasn't been reviewed and will require City Council approval.

The free TICET shuttles, or Tucson Inner City Express Transit, cost the city about $500,000 to operate. ParkWise is also paying $1 million a year in debt service on Pennington Street Garage.

Meanwhile, parking brings in about $200,000 a year in revenues, said Chris Leighton, ParkWise program coordinator said, leaving a $1.3 million hole in the city budget.

Because of the cost of the garage and TICET, "They've gone from making money to losing money," on parking, said Glenn Lyons, chief executive officer for the Downtown Tucson Partnership.

The concept to shift ParkWise into a shared public-private entity, with the Downtown Tucson Partnership acting as a manager but the city still overseeing it, came up when the partnership "started kicking around ways that we could help them," Lyons said.

The proposal includes $50,000 the city would pay the partnership each year for its management services, Lyons said. Leighton would remain the head of ParkWise.

Suggestions for improving parking include the possibility of adding meters, raising meter rates, and restructuring the residential parking permit prices so they no longer operate at a loss, Lyons said.

City and partnership officials said the partnership might be able to cut operating costs through greater efficiency, like combining maintenance and security operations. But they were vague about the details of their plans, saying those are still being negotiated.

They suggested the partnership might also be able to do better marketing and make changes, such as raise rates, faster than the City Council, which gets bogged down by political considerations.

"We need to work some of those ideas out. The bottom line is, if we can save the general fund money, and create a tool to further the redevelopment of Downtown, and enhance a revenue stream to support the partnership, it will be hard for me to not support that arrangement," Hein said.

"There's just a general concept right now, and if that's approved we'll figure out all the details," Leighton said. "To me there are some benefits in running it more like a business; that's sort of how ParkWise was intended to be."