Less Revenue for the Revenue Authority?

The joke used to be that the parking garages in Towson paid for the Baltimore County Revenue Authority's golf habit.

But those revenues could be reduced under a new agreement with Baltimore County in which the authority could turn over its two most profitable garages to the county in 2019.

The five-member authority board will be asked Tuesday to approve a new master parking agreement with the county. Under the terms of the lease and a memo obtained by Patch, the parking garages at Baltimore and Washington avenues could be taken over by the county,

The transfer could take place in 2019 after the authority's bonds on both garages are paid off, according to a memo written by William "Lynnie" Cook, chief executive of the authority.

"That transfer could take place on July 1, 2019, if they do not elect to have the authority continue in its present capacity," Cook writes in the memo.

The transfer would mean that the county would take over the authority's two most profitable garages. Two other garages—the Tolbert facility on Washington Avenue and York Road and the garage that serves the library and District Court facilities—are less profitable because they are used less.

Cook declined to discuss specifics of the memo and lease during a brief interview Friday.

"We're satisfied we're not going to be harmed," Cook said.

Details of the agreement and its financial impact on the authority is to be discussed on Tuesday, said Cook.

County officials had no initial comment about the memo or lease.

Cook's memo says the county is seeking the change as part of a cost containment move.

"The county is making every effort to reduce their expenses," Cook writes. "Unfortunately, the payment of parking subsidies along with the rental payment for the use of the vehicle maintenance shop in the basement of the Washington garages, represented significant annual expenses that they wanted to eliminate."

The authority was established by the Maryland General Assembly in the 1950s to manage public parking operations in the county. Those operations currently include metered street and surface lot spaces around the county as well as four garages in the Towson area.

The authority is partnering with developers Cordish Companies and Heritage Properties to build the Towson Circle III retail-theater project on Joppa Road adjacent to Towson Town Center.

In 1995, the authority took over management of the county's five public golf courses from the county.