Giant Sucking Tax Abuse

In Thursday’s (07.06.21) Toronto Star, a paper that claims it knows what’s best for Toronto, a Patrick Corrigan cartoon, Giant Sucking Sound, appeared without context other than the dim memory of the reader for the recent announcement of a miniscule and overdue parking fare increase of 0.50 per hour for the over-demanded street parking in this city. A fare increase that was excused as inflation-adjustment by a Councillor who did not need to defend it. A flaccid fare increase that no one except the fare increasers, journalists, and me got exercised about.

But, on reflection – given the way in which this price increase was designed and announced, by people who surely understand how and why street parking is grossly under-priced, by people who know how to price it properly (this wasn’t it), by people who could have priced it properly, by people who have a mandate to provide fair access to street parking in the City, by people who know that underpriced street parking causes circling hence congestion hence emissions – I can hardly blame a cartoonist for propagating their error.

No wait, maybe Corrigan is right. Perhaps the mindless 50 cent across-the-board increase that did not take demand management, i.e., local demand, into consideration was indeed a simple revenue grab.

Yes, I apologize, Patrick Corrigan, you are correct. It was all about revenue and nothing about demand management. Abuse of taxation power at it best.

Figure 1: Copyright Patrick Corrigan and Toronto Star. Used here without permission, but with complete respect for the working rights of cartoonists who have neither read nor even need be aware of Shoup’s High Cost of Free Parking to pass on the disinformation and tax misapplication perpetrated by The Toronto Parking Authority and Toronto City Councilors.