A tax on non-metered downtown parking to fund bike and pedestrian improvements — yay or nay?

Pioneer Press ^ | 4-23-15 | City Hall Scoop

[TurboZamboni]

Next is a tax on the air you exhale...Dems will figure out something to waste it on.

[Steely Tom]

Anything to raise taxes.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

The next pedal-pusher that cuts me off illegally and flips me off because I didn’t see them breaking the law and I almost hit them...

RAMMING SPEEEEEEEEEED!!!

I’m too lazy to post the picture tonight.

[Darksheare]

Why tax everyone for an item only used by a few?

[Patriot777]

Just another sure - fire way of wiping out downtown business, just like parking meters did.

[Steely Tom]

“Let’s raise taxes today for some pie-in-the-sky pleasant-sounding outcome at some indefinite point in the future, after I’m out of office.”

[dp0622]

lol. this is such a mellow thread to read after reading about burning and pillaging for hours :)

[Alberta's Child]

I’m surprised these cities don’t already have this tax. Most major cities impose some kind of tax on off-street parking lots. It’s one way they raise revenue from visitors (mostly workers) who don’t pay property taxes but use municipal services.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Give it a minute...

[dp0622]

lol

[G Larry]

Here’s how this works.

Learn to manage the revenue you have.
You don’t NEED anymore money.

We don’t need city and state employees “retiring” at 50 with 90% of their salary and then picking up another full time job.

The list of waste in local gov’t is as bad as it is at the Federal level.

[redlegplanner]

how about requiring the spandex squad to register their bikes and use the fees to pay for their own pavement rather than leeching off automobiles and blocking traffic?

[dalereed]

Just make people that ride a bicycle pay a fee of $5,000/year!

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Rioting would rival Baltimore.

[Blue Collar Christian]

I think a steep tax on bicycles, bicycle tires and accessories is in order to pay for their use of publicly funded roads and trails by bicyclists.

[MrEdd]

Metered parking never brings in as much revenue for a downtown area as is lost in sales tax due to the vast majority of suburbanites refusing to go anywhere without adequate free parking.

Subsidized mass transit can keep commerce going in high population density areas.

What percentage of the twin cities population doesn’t drive?
If most people have vehicles, build free parking garages instead of this crap and revitalize commerce. If people don’t drive, pay down the debt.

[Darksheare]

Well, there is that.

[RightOnTheBorder]

Or they could simply cut back on a teensie weensie bit of government waste and have the same amount of money to fund those things. But hey, where’s the fun in that.

[lightman]

The IRS has been trying to do this for decades.

[Organic Panic]

Put a tax on shoes and bike tires. Let the people that use it pay for it.