A new way to raise tax revenue

Well, haven't updated the blog in a while, not because I didn't have something to say, but more didn't have soemthing worthy enough. But, I did finally find something worthy.

So check this out, in the city of Seattle there are over 400,000+ parking tickets each year. See the link below.

http://www.kirotv.com/money/22637476/detail.html

And that number has been rising since they improved their dispatch system, making it easier for parking enforcement to give you a ticket. So, why would they improve this system, the answer, tax revenue.

Now think about this, we are paying the salary of parking enforcement (they are a public service), who in turn, ticket our cars. Now, I understand the overall importance of parking enforcement, it serves a purpose and provide a service to the community, but really 400,000+ is an outrageous number. The city of Seattle has a little over 600,000 people (that is defined within the city limits, the metro area is 3.3 million) so roughly 2 out of every 3 citizens will recieve a ticket! And how many of these parking tickets are really necessary, someone is late to the meter by a couple of minutes, really, is that the most pressing issue. There is real crime to deal with.

I have not recieved a parking ticket in Seattle, but from the sound of things, it is going to happen sooner or later.