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davis_square2009-08-26 06:37 pm
barry-rafkind.livejournal.com) wrote in davis_square2009-08-26 06:37 pm
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Fund This Story : Somerville Parking Tickets
Dear fellow car drivers friends and neighbors,
The City is counting on you to park longer than 48 hours in one place, to not remember which day is street cleaning on your side, and to forget to give your out-of-town friends and relatives visitor passes instantly when they arrive at your place. I know what you're thinking, that the City wants its residents, workers, and visitors to abide by the laws, not break them.
Alas, the FY2010 municipal budget (pdf) has already been written with the expectation of approx $8.7 million from parking fines (up $1.5 million from last year) plus change in surcharges, towing fees, and moving violations. So, unless you want the city to face cut-backs in police, fire, and education, you'd better start parking within 20 feet of an intersection and leaving your car on the street during your week-long vacation. The City has even adjusted its parking policies to help facilitate this new revenue increase.
But seriously, if the City is going to rely on this regressive form of taxation, shouldn't we at least expect the burden to fall somewhat equitably around the city? And how does Somerville compare to surrounding communities in terms of its parking enforcement policies? If you'd like to help us find out the answers to these and other parking related questions, then please consider pledging what you can to our new $500 fund-raiser to hire an investigative journalist. To join our campaign or leave a comment, please head on over to the Somerville Voices blog and thanks!
Sincerely,
Barry Rafkind
The City is counting on you to park longer than 48 hours in one place, to not remember which day is street cleaning on your side, and to forget to give your out-of-town friends and relatives visitor passes instantly when they arrive at your place. I know what you're thinking, that the City wants its residents, workers, and visitors to abide by the laws, not break them.
Alas, the FY2010 municipal budget (pdf) has already been written with the expectation of approx $8.7 million from parking fines (up $1.5 million from last year) plus change in surcharges, towing fees, and moving violations. So, unless you want the city to face cut-backs in police, fire, and education, you'd better start parking within 20 feet of an intersection and leaving your car on the street during your week-long vacation. The City has even adjusted its parking policies to help facilitate this new revenue increase.
But seriously, if the City is going to rely on this regressive form of taxation, shouldn't we at least expect the burden to fall somewhat equitably around the city? And how does Somerville compare to surrounding communities in terms of its parking enforcement policies? If you'd like to help us find out the answers to these and other parking related questions, then please consider pledging what you can to our new $500 fund-raiser to hire an investigative journalist. To join our campaign or leave a comment, please head on over to the Somerville Voices blog and thanks!
Sincerely,
Barry Rafkind
no subject
1) Are you aware that some of your links are broken?
2) Can you explain, clearly, in detail, and without hyperbole or linking to your own site how this is supposed to be a regressive tax?
You see, in a regressive tax, the poor pay a larger share of the burden. So a cigarette tax, which is an actual tax, could be seen as a regressive tax because the poor smoke more. Parking tickets would seem to shift the burden onto people who drive, who seem to me to range across all classes around here.
Perhaps the OP means that...
Re: Perhaps the OP means that...
It's true that a parking ticket would ding somebody who make $20k a lot more than somebody who makes $40k, but I want to see a full breakdown of who in what class drives. There's also the little matter of how this isn't a tax. If this were about the excise tax, I could see it being called regressive. This is about parking tickets, which can be avoided. The city is not going to come after you for abiding by the laws it passes.
Re: Perhaps the OP means that...
Any idea where we might find the type of data (income distribution of MA drivers) you're asking for? How much would you be willing to contribute to such a survey?
Sales tax can also be avoided, but that doesn't make it not a tax.
Re: Perhaps the OP means that...
And don't say something unrealistic like "live completely self-sufficiently", because that's silly as opposed to not getting parking tickets, which is pretty damn easy.
Re: Perhaps the OP means that...
You could also avoid income taxes if your income is below the threshold.
You could avoid the gas tax if you don't have a need to buy gas.
You could avoid the cigarette tax by not purchasing cigarettes.
So, still think that taxes must be unavoidable? The reality is that even if we personally do not pay the tax, others do, and that factors in to the prices we pay for goods and services.
Re: Perhaps the OP means that...
By your definition, there are almost no regressive taxes. I believe the most common usage is as others have pointed out - regressive with respect to ability to pay.
Sales tax is commonly described as regressive, and yet we all pay the same amount on a given item. It's regressive because it hits the necessities we all buy, putting a proportionately higher burden on the low income.
Re: Perhaps the OP means that...
That's not MY definition. That's an economic textbook's definition. That's what a regressive tax IS.
And, yes, there aren't that many regressive taxes. For obvious reasons, intentionally regressive taxes aren't terribly popular or viewed as effective methods of revenue collection. Any taxes that are regressive tend to be de facto regressive, like the cigarette tax (it dings everybody the same, but the further down the brackets you go, the more smokers you find).
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Parking tickets are regressive because the ones who end up receiving and paying for more tickets are those who can not afford off-street parking.
It is probably also the case that cars are more prevalent with families that can not afford to have one parent stay home with the kids, so that both parents must work, and at least one car is necessary to drive to a job and bring kids to day care.
Another point is that blue collar workers often do not have the types of jobs that would allow them to take off time to attend a parking hearing to contest their tickets.
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You see, my first response to this is to ask how much off-street parking is actually available for sale in the first place. Somerville just doesn't have that much parking, public or private.
It is probably also the case that cars are more prevalent with families that can not afford to have one parent stay home with the kids, so that both parents must work, and at least one car is necessary to drive to a job and bring kids to day care.
Right, you see, it's that "probably" that annoys me. We don't know this, do we?
Another point is that blue collar workers often do not have the types of jobs that would allow them to take off time to attend a parking hearing to contest their tickets.
And this brings us right back around to the question of how many blue-collar workers actually drive in Somerville.
The reason I'm busting your chops on this is that it seems fairly clear to me that neither the city nor the opponents of the parking legislation are really clear on who's going to take the hit. That's something I'd like to know, before I throw any support behind one side or another.
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Yes, it would be great to have the data about the socio-economic status of drivers in the city. Some data analysis is proposed in the micro-funded story we're trying to do on Somerville Voices. I hope you'll consider supporting this effort.
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But I've seen nothing that indicates it will be. You've already made your decision.
You don't like parking tickets. OK. I can respect that. What I can't respect is what seems to be an insistence that because you don't like parking tickets, they are somehow an evil plot by the city of Somerville to bilk drivers of money. Not so likely.
no subject
I never said this was an "evil plot". I don't believe in evil. Nor do I think the City is out to make its drivers poor. I do think that the city has an economic incentive to adjust its policies and enforcement practices to maximize its revenues, and that is antithetical to the idea of parking tickets as violation deterrents, instead of money generators. However, the story pitch is not about proving the economic argument, which is self-evident, but rather about analyzing how parking revenue is collected around the city. We hope to show whether you and your neighbors are paying more than people who live around the block, for instance.
It seems to me that $500 would not be enough...
Re: It seems to me that $500 would not be enough...
Re: It seems to me that $500 would not be enough...
Re: It seems to me that $500 would not be enough...
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Wealthier people seem to care care less about getting tickets, too. Poorer people that I know tend to work harder to avoid getting tickets.
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That right there is very good evidence that it is regressive. A tax that is neutral on the regressive/progressive continuum would be one that would concern wealthy and poorer people at about the same level.
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