Tax Money Well Spent?

Planning on taking a drive up to Philadelphia to visit family over the holidays? You may want to consider taking the train this year.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the city’s parking authority has spent $382,000 this year alone on promoting its image to the public and lawmakers through the media and lobbying. According to the report, six years ago the parking authority spent only $3,000 annually on public relations. The Inquirer estimates that the city has spent the cost of nearly 57,000 parking tickets on PR services since 2002.

Many critics are wondering why the city is spending so much money on hiring public relations practitioners and is still unable to provide more funding for local schools. Helen Gym from Parents United for Public Education states, “They sit there and hand dollars to all these politically connected people and lobbyists.”

The last time I drove through downtown Philadelphia was in the summer of 2006, and it took nearly an hour to find a parking spot. When I finally did manage to find one, the price for parking greatly exceeded what I had paid for lunch earlier that day. If these public relations practitioners truly want the public to believe in Philadelphia’s parking system, they should spend more time focusing on a true plan before spending thousands on publicity and lobbying.