Resident Parking Stickers are FREE? Maybe Not for Long
“If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street, if you try to sit, I’ll tax the seat. If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat, if you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.”
As most know, these are lyrics, often repeated on this page, from the old song by the Beatles called ‘Taxman’. People who live in large cities can relate to these words, because with each passing session that so many elected officials take part in, they always seem to come up with new ways to lift more money from the pockets of citizens.
New taxes and tax hikes are what quite a few of them live for. And so it is this week with Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, who is proposing a fee on those Resident Parking Permits that have up until now been free. If it comes to pass, it will be $25 per car and if a family has more than one vehicle it doubles, and experience tells us it will continue to go up from there. When you add this to all the other money grabs being piled on, it takes a heavy toll. Call it a ‘fee’, but this fee is a tax – a tax to park on the streets residents already pay taxes for to put their vehicles on; vehicles which are already targeted with sales taxes and excise taxes, that are powered by fuel that is also taxed. The other key word besides taxes is ‘Resident’. Residents are paying sky high property taxes, if they are home owners and astronomically high rents if they don’t own, so that the owners can afford to pay those out of control property taxes.
I’ve had the pleasure to meet Councilor Wu on at least two occasions. I like her. She seems to be a nice person and she works hard. But on this, in my humble opinion, she is clearly wrong. The questions to ask, not just her, but so many other politicians who sometimes think that there is no limit to what working class families can afford are these: When will it end? When will enough be enough? It may be difficult for some of them to grasp, but there is nothing in their job descriptions that mandates that each time they meet, they must come up with more ways to restrict and regulate the personal freedoms and liberties of citizens or to find new ways to take more money out of the pay checks of the people they represent. Remember, this is how revolutions start.
New York City is hemorrhaging taxpayers. People are leaving that city in droves, literally by the tens of thousands. It has become just too expensive to stay there, because politicians keep raising taxes and adding fees and slapping more regulations and restrictions onto everything. If the current trend continues here, Boston could see the same thing happen as it approaches the tipping point where residents decide they’ve had enough, which as we all know, many have done already. So to Councilor Wu and any other politician or special interest group that may not understand the plight of the beleaguered taxpayer – give it a rest already. No more fees, no more tax hikes. Enough!
Moving on. Sorry to bring bad news to the many dog owners out there, but according to a New York based journalist and liberal activist by the name of Ben Faulding, you have been added to the ever-growing list of what the politically correct warriors (sometimes referred to as ‘moonbats’) say is racist. That’s right, Mr. Faulding, who says he bases his theory on science and is backed up by some ‘progressive ‘college professors, has declared that owning a dog is a blatant act of racism. So now, because you own a dog, you have been lumped in with all of those other racists, who serve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to their kids, buy food at Farmer’s Markets, drink milk and eat ice cream, listen to Country Music, put clear lights on your Christmas tree and take part in or possess any of what now must be 6 or 7 billion other things not on the ‘approved list’ of the perpetually offended. So now you know. But what I’d suggest is, just give your canine friends a big hug and pay no attention to the moonbats.
