By Paul Krueger
If our elected officials were as creative with cutting expenses as they’ve been picking our pockets, we’d have a balanced budget with little, if any, need for additional revenue.
But our Mayor and City Council won’t make the fiscally responsible decision to cut the city’s workforce — especially its bloated middle-management ranks — through buy-outs, early retirements, furloughs, and lay-offs.
What we get instead is an endless array of new fees and taxes, which place the biggest burden on those least able to absorb these costs.
Doubling parking meter fees, expanding the hours, days, and locations where those fees are imposed, charging for parking in and around Balboa Park, and issuing thousands of $100-plus “daylighting” citations for motorists who unknowingly park within 20 feet of an intersection are just the start.
Every day brings a new and very unwelcome scheme that lightens our pocketbook.
If you don’t carry a bagful of quarters to feed the meters (yes, it takes 10 coins to park for an hour), you’ll now pay an additional credit card “transaction fee” for on-street parking.
Downtown, North Park, and Mid-City residents will be charged $150 to obtain a permit that allows them to avoid paying the new Sunday meter fees near their homes and apartments. This regressive fee most harms those who don’t have a garage or off-street parking, and who still have to pay the $2.50 per hour meter fee in the early evenings and on Saturdays.
And — surprise, surprise —...
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