Weeks after the California Legislature managed to scrap together a budget fix to the $42 BILLION shortfall, one might think Legislators would be hard at work trying to solve the remaining $8 BILLION out year deficit.

Instead, the Legislature spent Tuesday afternoon discussing SB 518. The measure, authored by Senator Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), would impose state parking regulations that forbid local communities from using state funds, either directly or indirectly, to subsidize parking.

In other words, the bill enacts a state mandate attempting to eliminate “free parking” for the stated purposes of fighting global warming and enacting “social equity.”

The measure stems from a February informational hearing entitled "Reducing Congestion and Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Parking Policy.” So what's so bad about free parking? The informational hearing showed the public how free parking is truly the root of all evils. You see, free parking is responsible for:

-Incentivizing car ownership and driving which adds to traffic;
-Contributing to rapid urban sprawl & "extravagant" energy use;
-Making housing more expensive;
-Free parking is a leading contributor to global warming & climate change; and of course
-Failing to provide an additional revenue stream to state & local governments.

No... this is not a joke.

The reality is that parking is an inherently local matter. Through their zoning ordinances, cities and counties mandate how many parking spaces each new development must provide. In most cases, these minimum parking requirements are set to ensure free parking to all users of the development at the maximum level of demand. Instead SB 518 allows the state to decide how a local government decides where you can park, or how much it will cost.

The great irony of course is that by eliminating free parking the Democrats will hurt those they claim to care for the most - the working poor. Supporters of these legislative measures have noted that eliminating free parking 'may create financial difficulties' for the economically disadvantaged. Unfortunately there is no "may" about it.

The Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council, noted:

In most cases, the shortest distance between a poor person and a job is along a line driven in a car. Prosperity in America has always been strongly related to mobility and poor people work hard for access to opportunities. For both the rural and inner-city poor, access means being able to reach the prosperous suburbs of our metropolitan economies, and mobility means having the private automobile necessary for the trip.

People who use transit because they do not have a car face limited mobility and diminished job prospects.

Before enacting anther social engineering policy for political purposes Legislators should consider an amendment suggested by Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) in Committee. Sen. Ashburn proposed amending the bill into a Legislature specific pilot program thereby eliminating the taxpayer subsidized parking for Senators and Assemblymembers.

After all, shouldn’t those who are so willing to implement their political will on the State be forced to live by the same rules as you and I? If after two years of riding public transit Legislators still believe eliminating free parking is the cure for all societies’ ills, then by all means, have at it.