-
Sep 25, 2007 4:57 pm US/Eastern
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
City Councilman Wants To Stop Parking Tax Cuts
He says the savings are not being passed onto commuters.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
When the city's parking tax cuts went into effect, the idea was to pass the savings on to commuters, and Pittsburgh Councilman Jim Motznik says that is not what happened.
Motznik says parking downtown is just as expensive as ever and now he wants to do away with future parking tax cuts.
He says the only ones benefiting from the tax cuts right now are the parking garage owners and the city is losing money.
"The purpose of the tax reduction is so that the consumers would see that savings when they go to park," said Motznik. "And that's just not the case. If they would have seen the 5 percent savings, I wouldn't be standing here today."
He backs up his argument with an audit of 60 major public and private garages who have not lowered rates.
As a result, Motznik is proposing an ordinance to freeze the tax cut at 45 percent.
It's scheduled to go down to 40 percent next year and 35 percent in 2010 as required by the state.
But Motznik says the city could lose $25 million from the tax cuts.
"I want to show the state that we are fiscally responsible and we are taking those revenues that we would be losing and putting them into two funds, paying down the debt and building up our pension fund," said Motznik.
Merrill Stabile, president of Alco Parking, told KDKA that there have been no increases in parking rates in five years despite an increase in operating costs.
He also adds that if the freeze goes into effect, you can count on an increase in parking rates.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)