Editorials
Parking violations should be enforced
Hernando Today
Published: December 11, 2010
The issue: County won't enforce parking violations in parks.Published: December 11, 2010
Our opinion: So why did they spend $42,400 on the meters?
In the annals of wasteful government spending, the county's purchase of four parking machines for $42,400 in an effort to increase revenues at county parks isn't that big of a number.
However, it's a microcosm of what's wrong with county government and why we're in such a financial mess.
Like the federal government, county government spends more than it takes in.
That's not likely to change with the county commission's recent 3-2 decision not to enforce parking violations in our parks.
So why did they spend $42,400 on the parking devices? Well, they are pretty. They're even fluent in four languages. Can you say: "What a waste of tax dollars" in four languages?
We're learning.
What's not smart is not enforcing the rules. When park-goers park, they are required to feed the parking machines $1 and retrieve a parking tag to put on their dashboard.
But why would they do that, knowing there's no penalty, no recourse from the county, if they don't?
They won't.
Unsuspecting tourists will probably feed the machines, but the majority of Hernando Countians who know the score probably won't.
It's not a question of ethics; it's a question of common sense and, apparently, some commissioners would rather stand on principle than common sense.
It's understandable that some commissioners didn't want to double tax people to park in their own parks. (We didn't like the idea either.) It's understandable that they didn't want the parking machines.
What makes no sense is buying the machines and then not enforcing the rules.
How do you pay for the machines? How do you generate more revenue for our parks?
Commissioners would have been better off putting a donation box at each park, because that's essentially what they're getting with their $42,400 machines.
Our question: Is there any way they could put the tags back on the machines and return them to the supplier for a full refund?
"Pocas probabilidades" (fat chance). The taxpayers are stuck with another boondoggle.