Pittsburgh's largest private parking operator won't lower its rates to match the 25-cent reduction the Pittsburgh Parking Authority will give customers to kick off the new year.

Merrill Stabile, president of Alco Parking Corp., said yesterday that rates at the garages and parking facilities Alco controls won't change even though the city's parking tax is being cut from 45 percent to 40 percent Jan. 1.

Mr. Stabile said Alco did not raise its rates in proportion with the increase in the parking tax from 31 percent to 50 percent in 2004. The company, he said, "ate a good portion of that tax" to keep rates lower.

"In many cases we left them the same in '04," he said. "For that reason, we are just refraining from an increase in '08, which will be the fifth year without a rate increase."

In conjunction with the 5-percentage-point decrease in the tax next year, the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, under pressure from Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who appoints the authority's board, will cut rates by 25 cents for all-day parkers at eight Downtown garages starting Tuesday.

At four of the eight garages, the 25-cent reduction passes on the entire tax cut to the consumer. At four others, where rates are now $13 or $14, the reduction passes on less than the entire tax cut.

By dropping the rates, the authority expects to lose about $400,000 in revenue.

In 2007, neither the authority nor Alco cut their prices in conjunction with the decrease in the tax from 50 to 45 percent, angering some politicians and commuters.

The authority did offer seven days of free parking Downtown, six of them in the weeks before Christmas. With the cut in all-day parking rates in 2008, it doesn't plan to repeat that offer.

In defending his decision not to lower rates, Mr. Stabile said that in many instances he kept his parking charges the same or increased them only slightly, less than what was needed to break even, when the tax jumped from 31 percent to 50 percent.

"We literally lost millions of dollars we never will recoup. The fact of the matter is our rates didn't go up in many cases," he said. "We knew when the tax went back down we would leave the rates the same."

He pointed out, for example, that Alco is charging the same $5 full-day rate at a surface lot in the Strip District as it was in 2004. He said the same applies at the Manor Building garage near Grant Street.

The mayor declined comment on Alco's decision.

Mr. Stabile said he doesn't fear losing business to parking authority garages by not reducing his rates.

"No, because everything's filling anyway. I could raise my rates if I wanted to, but I didn't think that was appropriate," he said. "We are still doing a service in our opinion by refraining from any increase."

Network Parking, which manages parking facilities at Station Square, the SouthSide Works and the Westin Convention Center hotel, Downtown, also will keep its rates the same in the new year.

Ryan Merriman, regional manager, said the company has kept rates the same since 2004 despite the parking tax hike and increases in operating costs.

"Forest City and Station Square basically ate the tax [increase] to keep the rates lower," he said.

Since Network Parking didn't raise rates when the tax was increased to 50 percent, "we felt we would leave it the way it is" now, Mr. Merriman said.

Representatives for Central Parking, another Downtown operator, could not be reached for comment.