Fairness of Parking Fee

My wife is a part-time employee of St. Mary Medical Center, earning less than $800 a month and working midmorning to early afternoon. She pays $5 a month parking fees to use the St. Mary parking structure. A fair price for services rendered. Then I read an article concerning parking fees by Dr. David Tillman, associate administrator at St. Mary in the July ’92 issue of the St. Mary Messenger.

It appears the Air Quality Management District (AQMD) is breathing down his neck, and a nameless individual has presented legislation before the Long Beach City Council to require employers in the area to charge their employees a minimum of $45 a month to park.

This effectively amounts to an additional 5% tax on my wife’s income, even though she is not even a resident of Long Beach and has no say whatever in the tax.

Once again, an ineffective, mismanaged, special-interest supporting arm of government has zeroed in on a blanket course of action that will do nothing to alleviate problems and will result only in the further erosion of liberty and honest paychecks.

CHARLES D. COUSINS

Lakewood