The Transportation Fact Sheet for 2013
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| Mayor Lee and Leah Shahum |
Jason Henderson in the Bay Guardian is annoyed that Mayor Lee wants to stop activating parking meters on Sundays:
But Henderson is right about the money, since the first full year of Sunday parking meters brought in $3,143,000 (Evaluation of Sunday Parking Management). But Matier and Ross report that the city's take from Sunday meters was more like $6 million after Sunday parking tickets are factored in. That's serious money for the MTA, even in a $800 million budget.
Why would Mayor Lee make this proposal? My suspicion: he's getting a lot of negative feedback from the neighborhoods. He even used the phrase "nickel-and-diming people to death."
The mayor talks a good game when saying he is truly concerned about pedestrian and cyclist safety, and insisting that he wants to fix Muni. But gutting a reliable source of operating funds and pandering to car drivers who will dangerously circle for parking is inconsistent."Pandering to car drivers"? Unlike bike guy Henderson and the city's bike people in general, a lot more people drive and park cars than ride bikes, since cycling is only 3.4% of all trips made in the city. (There are 463,923 motor vehicles registered in San Francisco.)
But Henderson is right about the money, since the first full year of Sunday parking meters brought in $3,143,000 (Evaluation of Sunday Parking Management). But Matier and Ross report that the city's take from Sunday meters was more like $6 million after Sunday parking tickets are factored in. That's serious money for the MTA, even in a $800 million budget.
Why would Mayor Lee make this proposal? My suspicion: he's getting a lot of negative feedback from the neighborhoods. He even used the phrase "nickel-and-diming people to death."
What with soaring housing prices and gentrification, the neighborhoods are getting restless. After the 8 Washington project was rejected by city voters, he's worried about his $500 million Muni bond.
The annual Transportation Fact Sheet has just been issued by the MTA with the latest numbers showing how much money the city makes from motorists.
For fiscal year 2012-2013, the city made $53,856,001 from parking meters (up $6,717,589 from last year); income from parking tickets was $88,889,809 (up $5,599,785 from last year). Parking tickets issued: 1,549,518 (up 20,698 from last year). The Residential Permit Parking Program brought in $10,248,044 (up $759,097 from last year). And the many city-owned parking garages and parking lots brought in $85 million.
For fiscal year 2012-2013, the city made $53,856,001 from parking meters (up $6,717,589 from last year); income from parking tickets was $88,889,809 (up $5,599,785 from last year). Parking tickets issued: 1,549,518 (up 20,698 from last year). The Residential Permit Parking Program brought in $10,248,044 (up $759,097 from last year). And the many city-owned parking garages and parking lots brought in $85 million.
That ads up to $237,993,854.
The Controller's office tells me that the city also got $2,799,155 from tickets from what the MTA calls "Red Light Cameras" at 25 city intersections; $2,695,930 from other moving violations; $3,055,028 in gas taxes; and $805,223 from vehicle license fees.
And there's the $84 million the SFCTA brings in via Proposition K sales taxes for transportation projects and street maintenance.
Add those numbers to the total above, and you have $331,349,190. That's a lot of nickels and dimes.
With all that money pouring into city coffers, City Hall can't even keep our streets decently paved. This is the sort of reality that will prompt a lot of city voters to reject Mayor Lee's $500 million bond.
Labels: Anti-Car, City Government, Cycling, Jason Henderson, Leah Shahum, Mayor Lee, Muni, Parking, SFCTA, Traffic in SF
posted by Rob Anderson @ 5:37 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Why does City Hall need more and more money? To support the pay and benefits of a growing city bureaucracy. See George Wooding's HOMEOWNERS: CITY HALL'S ATM:
"Mayor Lee's proposed $7.9 billion City budget for Fiscal Year 2013–2014 indicates that the City will increase spending by $710 million, adding 866 more City government employees, bringing the total to 27,722 full-time equivalent employees. [The City actually had 36,761 full- and part-time employees at the end of calendar year 2012.] Over one-half of the Mayor's budget — $3.9 billion — will be dedicated to City employee salaries and benefits. The average City employee makes $99,000 with benefits, while the average citizen makes about $73,000 with few or no benefits."
Yea we should fire them all and stop rep the streets so often.
Anon assuming you meant repaving. Good idea--we could trim so much fat frim the city budget if we stopped spending so much $$ repaving the roads for cars.
Bad roads/potholes are a bigger safety threat to you bike nuts than they are to motorists, who only incur repair bills. When a cyclist hits a pothole, it can mean a serious accident.
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