The times they are a changing. It seems that tax hikes, are not viewed favorably by residents in West Hartford. Maybe because this time its the lowly parking meter has ignited the one issue the binds people who have cars all over the world, parking. The NYTimes reports:
A decision by the town council here to spend $100,000 to replace parking meters in the downtown shopping district sparked a sort of taxpayer revolt that resulted in voters turning down the town budget last month and a campaign to vote down the latest budget in September.
The parking-meter incident may have been a lightning rod for voter frustration with the increasing cost of everything from gasoline prices to taxes. Or it might have been, as some city officials said, an attempt by budget opponents to twist the offhand remarks of one town official to help ignite opposition to the budget and its 6.9 percent tax increase.
West Hartford of course is the site of Blue Back Square, the new retail addition to the city center serving as the downtown. It is quixotic that a suburban enclave like West Hartford, known for is 72% voter turn out would be so flummoxed over replacing, replacing mind you, parking meters. Note that the priceof parking at these meters did not change, only that the meter that once served two spots, is not being replaced with a meter that adds swipey card payment and only deals with one space.
John Phillips, the town’s parking manager, said that the old meters were beginning to malfunction. Replacing them with “consumer-friendly” meters that read prepaid cards had been a longtime goal, he said.
The decision led the town manager, James Francis, to remark that now the town would not have to deal with complaints from the dozen people a month who get tickets for not being able to figure out how to use the meters, which require that drivers push a button indicating whether they are parking to the left or right of the meter.
His comments, reported in the local newspaper, were widely circulated as the reason the town wanted to replace the meters.
“You have to spend $100,000 because people can’t read?” said Elliot Check, a dentist and a member of the West Hartford Taxpayers Association who has lived here for 24 years. “I made that mistake once, and I haven’t done it again, and I don’t think the town should be paying for the individual’s mistake.”
“Maybe they should take some of that money and have a class on how to use the meters,” said Ellyn Ziplow, a homemaker who is from Simsbury but parks in the Center here once a week.
“They’re spending money on luxuries or nice-to-have things rather than things that are really important,” said Judy Aron, vice president of the taxpayers association.
Mayor Scott Slifka said that the manager’s remarks were turned into “something sensational. It’s completely distorted. It’s become urban legend.”
Ah but then customer service is the 9th ring of hell to begin with, the parking customer service ring is even more hellish than that. All because parking rage and displaced road rage. Parking has become the “I’m not going take this anymore” moment of the infrastructure network.
He said that while town officials did get many complaints from people who had misread the directions on the meters, it was not why they bought the new meters. He also said the parking meter revenues can only be used for parking-related expenditures.
On June 17, voters overwhelmingly rejected the $216 million budget. After the defeat, the council trimmed $1.18 million from town departments, and the board of education cut $1.4 million by eliminating 19 teaching jobs. A new proposed budget comes with a 5.5 percent tax increase.
Too high, the taxpayers association still says, and its members are working to gather enough signatures to force a second vote, which could be on the ballot in September.
“People are losing their jobs. They’re cutting back on education. They’re cutting back on leaf collection, and this is their priority?” asked Theresa McGrath, the association’s secretary. “There’s nothing in the charter that says they can’t transfer funds,” she said, referring to the $100,000. “They do it all the time.”
The mayor said the town cannot transfer those funds.
“That’s completely, totally, absolutely 100 percent wrong,” he said. “The money can only be used for parking purposes unless the council repeals the existence of the fund.”
The council won’t do that, he said, “We would immediately be penalized by the rating agencies, because it’s a very bad financial practice.”
Even as the budget battle goes on, the new meters will be installed this summer.
In Norwalk, of course, we do things differently. The lightning rod issue, garbage, well I exaggerate, the sparkler issue that certain groups, chiefly Democratic flunkies of district E and B seem too obsess over is not about reducing city spending. Nope, they want to the city to spend more on garbage, and get less recycling as a result. And they wonder why Norwalk can only muster a turnout that barely breaks 30%.
source: NYTimes, A Parking-Meter Furor Fuels a Budget Battle, By HARLAN J. LEVY, July 13, 2008
