Major parking changes are coming to downtown and midtown Sacramento soon after the Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday night to do away with free parking on Sundays and holidays at metered spaces.City leaders said the end of the free Sunday and holiday parking at metered spots is part of their overall plan to close the city’s $66 million budget deficit. The change will take effect on July 1 at the start of the new fiscal year.While Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg understands the change is not the most ideal, he said it was necessary in order to avoid other city programs and resources from being on the chopping block.“The reason is simple, we have a budget deficit in Sacramento, and so budgets are hard choices,” Steinberg said. “Although it would have been nice to keep it, when it came to the choices, we put making sure we didn’t cut public safety as a higher priority.”As part of the $1.6 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year that the city council approved, the city confirmed with KCRA 3 that 300 new parking meters will be installed in the central city area. The city expects those to be up and running by the end of September.“I think we made solid choices,” Steinberg said.Some drivers said they understood why the changes to parking in Sacramento had to be made.“I thought that my support for a couple of dollars on a weekend or holiday could help offset a program that might have been cut,” Gold River resident Kim Rothschild said. “I felt like it was worth the sacrifice for my activities on a weekend or a holiday to help support important programs for people who live in Sacramento.”Davis resident Tiffany Mok added, “It’s a good idea… It seems to make sense to me, although I obviously, like everyone else, won’t enjoy paying it, but I do understand that when there’s a budget issue and that we’re in this situation, it makes sense.”But others said they are frustrated with the extra costs.“They should not charge us for that,” Folsom resident Nina Phillips said. “It’s ongoing charges and increases in the things that are in California and in the Sacramento area.”Phillips also said the expansion of paid parking will prevent those from out of town from going to restaurants and businesses in the heart of the city.“Just another reason for people not to come to the Sacramento area to do things here and spend money here,” Phillips said.But Visit Sacramento CEO Mike Testa said he anticipates that people will still come downtown.“We’re hopeful that the draw is big enough, right, that the restaurant you want to go to is worth paying a little bit for parking and we hope that’s the case,” Testa said. “If there are reasons to come downtown. If you’re going to an event or an activity, you’re going to come, whether it’s free parking or not, so I think it’s indicative of the programming that’s changed in Sacramento. Since there’s more reasons to come down, I don’t think people will worry about that quite as much.”The City of Sacramento confirmed with KCRA 3 that the city’s holiday parking program, which allowed for free parking at metered spots from Thanksgiving to Christmas, is also going away.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.