Canberrans paying more than $1 million per month in government parking fees
August 4th, 2009 at 08:05am
The ACT Liberals have managed to extract information from the government about the amount we’re feeding in to those parking meters in order to avoid one of the government parking inspectors extracting even more money from our collective wallets, and it is over $1 million per month.
It has been revealed through Questions on Notice that the Stanhope-Gallagher government paid parking cash grab is over $1 million per month for commuters, the Shadow Minister for Urban Services, Alistair Coe MLA said today.
In 2007-08 well over $12 million was collected through paid parking in parking meters and ticket machines. In the city alone there was well over $5 million collected.
“Slugging Canberrans with huge parking costs is an easy cash-grab by the Government and it’s only going to increase with significant parking fee increases introduced this financial year,” Mr Coe said.
Alistair Coe then provides a table of the figures.
There is a slight problem with the table though. My calculations show that the combined total from Civic, Phillip, Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Manuka is $10,546,541.35, which leaves a hole of $2,169,911.20. It’s quite possible that this couple of million dollars comes from Dickson and other unlisted areas, but it’s a pity that these areas aren’t at least listed as “other”.
Regardless, Alistair does make a good point about what the government are doing with this money:
“The Stanhope Government has made little progress on improving the public transport system. Without a reliable public transport service many Canberra families are forced to drive their cars.
“Based on previous years’ data, the government will bring in at least $2m extra from the 20% increase in the cost of parking brought in on 1 July 2009. What extra services and improved parking facilities will Canberrans receive for this money?” Mr Coe said.
Ah, well that’s simple Alistair. More bicycles for public servants, more photos of Simon Corbell sitting on said bicycles with a “I have no idea what this thing is” look on his face, even more eye-popping green paint on buses, and even bigger cars for “the Stanhope-Gallagher government” (please don’t tell me that they intend on marrying).
And none of this even takes in to account the amount we pay to private parking operators.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Canberra Stories,Samuel's Editorials
2 Comments
1. Yodaddy | August 4th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Be interesting to know how much they take in on fines and impound fees.
Parking and non-moving violation fines in the city of Chicago netted $160 million in 2006.
2. Samuel | August 4th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
The fines would net a small fortune. I accidentally parked in a “permit zone” in Belconnen a couple years ago which cost me about $80…I wonder if I would have received an extra fine if I hadn’t paid for my parking? I should have contested it as the sign was obscured by a tree, but couldn’t be bothered.