Replies

Thu show ping and a special Thu column for Howie.
Mayor’s fee plan needs a good kick to the curb
By Howie Carr | Thursday, April 10, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com

Hey, Mumbles Menino, you want to raise some revenue, forget about soaking the motorists again.

Instead, do what everybody else in the state has to do when they run out of money - run a Proposition 2 1/2 override election. Let’s see how you do then. Ask the taxpayers to cough up some more dough on their property taxes to keep the Mumbles clan in the chips and see what the answer is.

Let’s run the numbers from the new, improved, everything-included city payroll now online at bostonherald.com. First we have Mumbles Menino, mayor, $175,000 a year.

Next comes Thomas M. Menino Jr., Boston police detective, total pay, with base salary, overtime, police details and Quinn bill benefits for education: $137,529.14.

Next comes Mrs. Thomas M. Menino Jr., a/k/a Lisa, administrative assistant, Property Management: $102,050.22, including $29,140.03 in overtime.

At City Hall, they call this cornucopia of six-figure Mumbles salaries “basic city services.” The rest of us, who are picking up the tab, call it the hackerama.

Hey Mumbles, I know it’s been a while since you drove yourself into the city, so let me be the one to give you the bad news. The reason people park in crosswalks or fire lanes or wherever is because there aren’t any more open parking spaces downtown.

Every one is reserved - for the judges, for the “court personnel,” for the BPD, for the MBTA police, for the - well, you get the picture. And my favorite proposed new fine - $35 for parking more than one foot from the curb.

The first snowstorm usually hits in mid-December. The city’s snow plowing is, like most other city services, substandard. The piles don’t go away for months. And now, the meter maids falling behind in filling the ticket quotas that City Hall says don’t exist will always be able to write a ticket for “more than 1 foot from curb.”

How much do you want to bet that the rulers they use to measure the distance will be 10 inches or less, just like the 2-hour city parking meters that start flashing “EXPIRED” after 90 minutes.

Naturally the fines are only going up downtown, because Mumbles figures the only people down there are suburbanites, tourists and rich Yuppies who are just drifting through.

The excuse at City Hall is that these downtown parking fines haven’t been raised in 17 years. That’s true, but you can say the same thing about the cost of parking at the South Shore Plaza.

Cost to park in Braintree (or at any mall) in 1991: zero.

Cost to park in same in 2008: zero.

Somehow, the malls have been able to hold the line. But then, I doubt they have many “administrative assistants” making $102,000 a year.

Another City Hall rationalization: Everybody should take the T. To which I reply: You take the T, if you like it so much. They don’t call certain lines “the Vomit Comet” for nothing.

A gallon of gas now costs over three bucks. The state gas tax is probably going up. The tolls were just hiked 25 percent, and will soon be going up again.

Mumbles, have pity on the working man.

Here’s a suggestion: Hit the colleges on their in-lieu-of-taxes payments. Harvard owns Allston, lock, stock and tollbooth. Boston College has acquired most of Lake Street.

Jack up the money the colleges pay for “basic city services.” Make them foot the skyrocketing cost of keeping the Menino family, as well as so many others, in the chips.

I don’t care if the snotty Euro-creep college boys double-parking on Newbury Street get hit harder. Just don’t hit me again.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1086158