Fees a downright taxing subject

One of the great things about Mounte Pleasante is that town officials really know how to hold the line on taxes. Don't have to read their lips — they haven't raised property taxes in 16 years.

Now, they are spiking the living daylights out of their fees. But hey, those aren't taxes. Just ask any politician.

Fees are completely voluntary, they'll tell you. Nobody pays them unless they want additional services — luxuries like electricity, plumbing, or a place to park while they walk across the Cooper River bridge.

You know, taxpayers have already paid $630 million for that elevated walking path. Would it be too much to ask for a couple of VIP parking passes?

The Towne administrator has suggested a ban on parking along Patriots Point Boulevard, where most bridge walkers now leave their cars. In exchange, he proposes that folks park at the soon-to-open Memorial Waterfront Park and pay $1 an hour.

To give you an idea of how steep that is, that's 25 percent higher than parking in downtown Charleston.

That's a heck of a way to get into the pay-to-park business.

There has never been paid parking in Mounte Pleasante public lots; that's the glory of being a suburban town.

In fact, back when they were debating where to put the Hunley museum, it was one of the selling points. If they put it in Charleston, the argument went, folks would have to pay extra for parking.

OK, Patriots Point recently started charging $3 to park there, but you can't put that on Mounte Pleasante.

Patriots Point is a quasi-state agency. And their money goes for maintenance on those four ships, something the state's not exactly been keeping up with. (The state, it seems, is in the same boat as the town.)

Councilman Joe Bustos calls this a slippery slope, and he's got a point. Are they next going to charge for parking at Towne Centre? How about Shem Creek? Maybe put a toll gate at Remley's Point. That's the ticket.

You can argue that it costs money to get into county parks, too, but those are all flat fees. The James Island County Park doesn't charge by the hour, like some seedy motel.

Town officials say they need the parking money to keep up with maintenance at the new park.

Bustos says the town shouldn't build things it can't afford to keep up. That's just adding an additional burden to the ever-shrinking tax base.

Maybe, Bustos says, the town should dip into its TIF district funds (that's tax increment financing for the bureaucratically challenged) to maintain the park until the sun rises on the economy once again.

Don't put it on the people. They might, in turn, just tell town officials to take a longer walk off their new long pier.

Between raising the utility franchise, stormwater fees and this, Bustos says the camel's back might be ready to break.

"Each one, by itself, isn't a big amount of money," Bustos says. "Put them all together, and it starts to add up."

Some officials will tell you that it's no big deal; they aren't raising taxes — remember, they haven't done it in 16 years. That's how people get elected to office these days, from little towns to the White House. They promise they won't raise taxes, which is an irresponsible point of view from a management standpoint. Inflation affects government, too.

To live off their current incomes, governments have to cut existing services, or sneak by tax increases they call "fees." Bustos will tell you this is the sort of thing that will nickel-and-dime folks to death.

But this pay-to park business also opens up a lucrative new revenue stream for a town that doesn't want to raise taxes. The city of Charleston makes a lot of money off parking, and about four times as much off tickets. Maybe Mounte Pleasante is on to something.

And there's something else. If it walks like a tax, talks like a tax and spends like a tax, it's a tax.

Rather than pay that new tax, some folks might decide to take their long walks in a spot where there is a view just as nice, and the parking is cheaper — say, The Battery.

Reach Brian Hicks at 937-5561 or bhicks@postandcourier.com.