🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <52115@seismo.CSS.GOV> stead@skadi.CSS.GOV (Richard Stead) writes:
>In article <BODARKY.93Mar4130244@titan.cme.nist.gov>, bodarky@cme.nist.gov (Scott Bodarky) writes:
>> I'm pissed; DC is the murder capital of the world and they're busy
>> handing out $50 tickets because of a missing front license plate. I
>> didn't violate any parking regulations either; the guy must have been
>> ambling along just looking at every car.
>
>You're looking at the problem the wrong way.  DC treats parking fines as
>revenue enhancement.  After the costs of the program, they generate a tidy
>$50 million a year this way.  So murders have nothing to do with it.  They
>don't use police to generate these tickets - they hire relatively unskilled
>people, train them to write tickets and set them loose.  They aren't taking
>any warm bodies off the police force to do this, and they generate a huge
>profit (that arguably can be used to hire more police to investigate murders
>which generates no profit).

DC is not the only area that does this.  New York City has the Brownies.
They are called Brownies because their uniforms and the cars they get to
drive are brown.  Technically, they are part of the Traffic Division but
their major job is to write parking tickets and have cars towed from
tow-away zones.  They do some direction of traffic, but that's only in
need (do *you* want to stand in the middle of the street with traffic
whizzing by in New York? :-).

>Of course, I think their policy is scandalous.  This is just a form of commuter
>tax that is currently legal.  Among other legal commuter taxes that DC uses
>is a 12% tax on parking lot revenue.  DC is already hitting up commuters
>tax-wise, and they are still complaining they aren't getting enough out
>of them.  I'm glad I neither live nor work in DC - and I don't drive my car
>into the city, either (I generally park in VA and walk into the city for
>public events and anything else I might want to do on or around the mall or
>Georgetown - I metro for anything else).

I visit DC often (in fact, I probably will be there this weekend) and I
don't think DC is that bad.  Try New York.  In New York there is a 16.5%
parking tax (the last time I looked), the bridge and tunnels that charge
tolls are $3 each way, $4 if you come in from Jersey (two different
governmental authorities).  The busses and subways are $1.25 reguardless
of where you go.  HOWEVER, they are talking about raising that to $1.50.

Talk about commuter related taxes, you can also just live in the 'burbs
and find "MTA Surcharge" on your phone and electric bills.  MTA is the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the folks who run the Transit
Authority (city busses and subways) and the commuter rails (Long Island
Railroad and Metro North).  I no longer work in the city yet I still
have to pay these charges monthly.  You want to complain about commuting
taxes??

Moral of the story: be happy with what you got, you could alway live in
New York!  (Yes, I'm a native New Yorker [born in Brooklyn] and yes, I
wouldn't mind leaving).
-- 
scott barman
scott@asd.com                                 1993 Mets -- Wait Till Next Year!
        NT is a myth, Windows is a kludge, and Bill Gates is a liar!
              For a real OS, find your nearest Unix running X!