I was raised in Galveston County when parking was free. I recently took my family to visit to spend money shopping and eating. I was shocked at the parking fee machines everywhere. It smelled of greed and caused me to spend a lot less than planned for the day.
You see, it’s like the Texas City Dike charging $10 a car. Most people from Texas City live in other surrounding areas now so they don’t come to the dike anymore and neither do their sales-tax dollars.
The people from Houston that do come, unload their trash out of their trunks and throw everything on the ground to get their money’s worth after bringing their supplies with them not spending any money, so no sales-tax revenue.
Galveston is the same way. Trying to cash in turns away respectable people that have principles, and when funds go down they just raise the rates some more. I used to always spend two or three days in Galveston on my four weekly visits to the county each year but now after seeing this latest increase, I’ll pass.
My sales-tax revenue should be good enough to have a place to park without getting pick-pocketed.
Richard Galloway
Belton