Quote Originally Posted by ndavies View Post
You all fail to realize that consumers make buying decisions based on price. All you are doing is giving consumers one more reason not to come downtown.

Any taxes placed on parking lot attendants will be directly transferred to the users of those lots in the form of higher parking rates.

More taxes and fees will be just another reason for consumers to head to the big free parking lots of the suburbs. More taxes just drive away the people with money who do have a choice to where they work and shop. The city already has a huge number of deterrents, why keep adding more?

If you want to get rid of the parking lots downtown, you have to get rid of the need to have them. Taxing them doesn't fix the need. It you want them improved, You need to figure out how you can make the owners more profitable so they have extra money to invest in their properties. You then need to use blight laws and social pressure to get them to fix up the properties. They can either pay the money to the blight court or they can spend the money on improving the value of their lot. A flat tax just punishes the lot owners who would do the right things.
This is key. But, what if the tax doesn't significantly affect patronage?