Tuesday, December 02, 2008

City Budget Highlights.

I found this on the Chicago Sun Times web site. I found it interesting. My thoughts are italicized.

Highlights from Chicago's 2009 city budget

November 20, 2008
  • 635 city employees laid off — possibly dozens less, depending on how many take cash incentives to retire.
  • More than 1,600 vacant jobs eliminated.
  • Six partial shutdown days around the holidays.
  • Slow police hiring to 200 in 2009, saving $10 million.
    • Because we definitely don't need more cops. We like being the Murder Capitol of the nation.
  • Raise amusement tax to 5 percent on live theatrical, musical and cultural performances in venues seating more than 750 seats and 9 percent for sporting events, concerts and movies.
  • Extend amusement tax to include 135,000 Chicagoans who get their cable TV by installing a satellite dish.
    • Obviously Chicago owns the air and space that is directly above us. This is ridiculous.
  • Increase parking tax — from $2.25 per car to $3 — on motorists who pay more than $12 to park.
  • Lower Denver boot threshold from three unpaid tickets to two older than one year.
  • Six-week amnesty for 3.5 million overdue parking and red-light tickets Dec. 1 to Feb.14.
    • Basically only good for any tickets before Jan 1st, 2007. If you got it in 2008 you don't get any type of help.
  • Blues and Jazz fests reduced from four days to three with fewer stages at each.
    • Must not be making much money off the show.
  • Double daily library fines from 10 to 20 cents.
  • Raise ambulance fees from $325 and $8 a mile to $600 and $13 a mile for basic life support and from $400 and $8 a mile to $700 and $13 a mile for advanced life support. Nonresidents will pay $100 on top of that.
    • Nonresidents should know better than to get injured or sick while visiting this city. Because your less of a person than those that live here.
  • Raise residential permit parking guest passes from $10 to $16 for a book of 30.
    • This makes sense to me.. strange.
  • Increase the public vehicle license fee paid by limosuines and charter buses from $100 to $200 to $500 for everybody.
  • Raise $9 million by requiring businesses and residential high-rises to purchase annual licenses for their garbage containers at a cost of $80 to $780.
  • Cut $1.7 million city subsidy for free trolley rides.
    • There's free trolley rides here? Wow.. I don't get out much.
  • Privatize 35,000 parking meters by year’s end and apply $150 million to shortfalls this year and next. If it doesn’t work, more layoffs and tax hikes needed.
    • Yes!! Privatize them so the company that gets the contract can make even more money than the city did! Brilliant!!
  • Establish five-year, $100 million annuity with discretionary proceeds from the Midway Airport lease and spend $20 million a year through 2012.
  • Save $5 million by consolidating city departments that handle consumer issues, human services, economic development and business affairs.
  • Install red-light cameras at 50 more intersections.
    • 50? Why not every 6 corner intersection and every intersection crossing a highway. Might as well make the most out of them. Will they catch bicyclists that don't stop as well?
  • Raise $2 million by seeking sponsorships for city assets and events, beginning with a new agreement to provide beverage and vending services and city-owned facilities.
  • Eliminate Fire Department Segway patrols in the Loop.
    • There was a need for this to begin with?
  • Raise daily and annual fees for merchants at Maxwell Street market to save popular Jumping Jack program for neighborhood festivals.
    • Uh.. the Jumping Jack program is idiotic. What service does it really serve that the neighborhood organizers couldn't find in some other form?

Chicago's Parking Ticket Amnesty Program

Chicago has decided to start up the Parking Ticket Amnesty Program again. It's been about 6 years since the last opportunity for people to get a little help with their parking tickets.

Six years ago the city offered to wave all late fees on tickets and cut the prices on the tickets in half. This time around they're just going to cut the late fees in half. Oh, and only to the tickets you got before Jan 1, 2007. As if that's really going to help out a lot of people.

It is a good smoke screen to get people to actually fess up to the tickets they have. It will also make it easier for the city to get up to date addresses on people that have moved a hundred times since their last ticket. That way the city can actually send you notices and they can add more late charges.

However, if you do have parking tickets from before January 1st, 2007 then I guess this is good. Considering that most late fees on tickets after a year are at least a hundred bucks, so now you're just spending an extra fifty bucks.

I know what the ticket game is like. After all, I'm on a payment plan for $1,500 worth of them. Of course, all of mine were after January 1st, 2007. Once again, no help for me.

So is it really all that good of a deal? I guess so if you have a ton of tickets but it doesn't seem like much.

The amnesty program was inspired by the newly signed bill that has dropped the number of tickets that will get you the boot. Which was recently dropped from 3 tickets to 2 tickets. That's right, if you have two tickets on your name then your vehicles are now eligible for the boot.

If your not familiar with the boot system it works like this.

You have 2 tickets. They put the Denver Boot on one of your tires. Your car is now immobilized. You have 24 hours to pay off your tickets or start a payment plan to remove the boot. Plus a booting fee and a boot removal fee. If you can't make arrangements to remove the boot your car will be towed. Now you have towing fees and possible storage fees to pay for as well. If you don't make arrangements to pay off your tickets and the fees after a certain period of time; your car will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Here's the catch. Let's say you owe $600 total to get your car back. Your car gets auctioned off for $1,200. The city gets every penny of that and you still owe for your parking tickets, towing fees and storage fees.

So here's my suggestion.

If you have a car that is booted, you know you can't afford to pay off your tickets and the city is going to take it. Take everything you want out of the car and then take a baseball bat to it. Smash everything you can get to and then take a boxcutter and cut the upholstery to ribbons. Smash the windows, the radio and then pop the hood and start cutting belts and hoses.

I mean.. if they're going to take your property, sell it and then not even take the amount off of what you owe then why give them anything?