Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Government Parking Front and Center
A newspaper article today pointed out the lavish parking privileges given to City and County employees that work Downtown. Favorable locations, discounted rates, and forgiveness from the City’s parking tax are just some of the benefits. About 200 City workers and 340 County workers are taking part.
One City official noted that the perk is there to compensate for the low average salaries paid to City workers, even though the average private sector salary is below that of the City average. Great pension and health benefits are also present in government work, so the level of “extras” just keep piling up and up until, low and behold, there is a pension crisis present. Certainly the people getting the parking passes, including the top officials of both the City and the County, do not fall below the mean mark for salary. The fact that “seniority and job title” play into determining who gets the privilege belies the claim that the so-called low average salary prodded the parking privileges on.
For all the talk extolling the virtues of public transit to the City’s support of Flexcar—for which they removed parking meters and entered into a $10,000 contract—one would think that City and County workers would have options just like private sector workers commuting in and out of Downtown, whose time is likewise valuable.
One City official noted that the perk is there to compensate for the low average salaries paid to City workers, even though the average private sector salary is below that of the City average. Great pension and health benefits are also present in government work, so the level of “extras” just keep piling up and up until, low and behold, there is a pension crisis present. Certainly the people getting the parking passes, including the top officials of both the City and the County, do not fall below the mean mark for salary. The fact that “seniority and job title” play into determining who gets the privilege belies the claim that the so-called low average salary prodded the parking privileges on.
For all the talk extolling the virtues of public transit to the City’s support of Flexcar—for which they removed parking meters and entered into a $10,000 contract—one would think that City and County workers would have options just like private sector workers commuting in and out of Downtown, whose time is likewise valuable.
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Why arn't County and City employees "required" to use PAT service instead of driving (and in too many cases using gratis vehicles)and benefiting from grossly preferential and unjustified parking rates ?
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