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.