We had a family gathering over the weekend and one of my relatives was exceedingly unhappy at having to pay the extra tax to drive into Woodward Park. See today's story about it here.
When she first heard about this surtax, she didn't get too excited because she thought it was intended for people who live way out of town, not people who live 10 minutes from the park. She lives in Clovis, and the only reason she was even at the park was to take her grandson there, who lives in Fresno.
Unfortunately, he's just a toddler, so he doesn't yet have an identification proving his Fresno residence. So, looks like she's stuck with the extra tax, and she's right to say it's not fair. I guess Fresno's kids need to get ID cards to avoid being doubly taxed for park services. It's not the $2. It's the idea. "You need to write about this in The Bee," she advised.
She's right, so here I am again. I think we should call it the ducks tax because the people who voted it in were all quacks. I've posted complaints about this lame idea before. Read it here.
OK, the idea was to get money from people who don't pay taxes on our parks. Unfortunately, all people with Fresno addresses get by without paying the $2 surtax, even if they live in a county island.
Everyone understands if more money is needed to improve the parks. So charge everyone $4 and be done with it.
Fresno Bee photo: Here they are, the ducks of Woodward Park. Quack.
I pay state taxes and property taxers on a home in Fresno even though I live in Sanger so I should not have to pay the extra fee but I will solve it and just not go to the park. This alienates a great smount of people that may no longer go to the parks resulting in revenue. The quack tax indeed.
Charge everyone $5.00 ...then they won't have to give as much change and besides-what's wrong with the idea.It cost money to take care of parks
I agree with you Brian. If the city was smart they would have just taxed everyone that way nobody can complain about who pays and who doesn't pay.
I'd be annoyed at the fee, too, if I lived outside the Fresno city limits. But I understand the rationale. Woodward is used as a regional park by people all over the county, and even in other counties. Yet, other than the entrance fee (which probably only covers a portion of the upkeep), it is paid for and maintained only by residents of the City of Fresno.
Maybe a better solution would be to create a regional park authority that includes the whole county, and put Woodward, Roeding and all the county parks under its control. But this is probably the wrong economic and political climate to do something like that.