Subscriber Comments for
Das Williams said that budget language authorizing Californi...

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

SBSWEETPEA	2012-06-14 08:24 AM
Yeah!
COMMENT 287804	2012-06-14 09:08 AM
Good work, Das! Thank you! (and I have been only a sometime voter for you.)
COMMENT 287809	2012-06-14 09:16 AM
Interesting logic Das, price people into what behavior you find acceptable. Should also work to get vagrants off the streets - stop making it so easy for them to continue their shiftless lifestyles in Santa Barbara just like you want to force commuters into busses.
COMMENT 287822P	2012-06-14 09:53 AM
809, agreed. I am not sure what Das's complaint is about. Does he think that paying $1.50 an hour (after the initial 75 minutes) is cheaper then riding the bus? Or that buying a prepaid card is cheaper?
COMMENT 287824P	2012-06-14 09:59 AM
Yippee! :)
COMMENT 287809	2012-06-14 10:28 AM
Suspect most of the yippee comments come from city and county workers who expect subsidized parking as their God given right, while they continue their 70 minute shuffles on company (taxpayer) time. They are the biggest (ab)users of downtown parking lots.
DILLYDALLY	2012-06-14 10:44 AM
This is great news (and I dont work for the city / county, never have and never would). I have lived in may cities and parking downtown is excellent and less expensive than anywhere. If the lots were sold it would double or tripple the charges for parking. That would hurt business, a lot.
CAPTAIN HALEY	2012-06-14 10:52 AM
I agree with Dillydally. The vitality and success of Santa Barbara's downtown is due in large part to the easy access and low cost of the downtown parking lots. It is of critical importance that we not mess with this successful program. btw What Das is talking about is the two "commuter lots" -- on Carrillo at Castillo and at Cota and Santa Barbara streets. It could be said that by subsidizing the cost of parking at those lots the city is encouraging people to drive into the city...the opposite of what some commenters here have objected to. Rather than "forcing commuters into buses" we are encouraging them to use cars.
COMMENT 287845	2012-06-14 10:52 AM
@809 Confused about what you're trying to say...70 min shuffle? Huh? Meaning to move the car every 70-75 mins or..?
COMMENT 287846	2012-06-14 10:55 AM
DillyDally how do you know it would double or triple the cost? Or that it would hurt business? That is an asumption on your part and many others when the news was first announced. There is no evidence that someone would not purchase the lots and charge the exact same amount or less.
COMMENT 287850	2012-06-14 11:02 AM
MSSB, There is also no proof to definitively say they wouldn't. How else do you expect the difference to be made up? Private companies don't collect taxes last time I checked.
COMMENT 287851	2012-06-14 11:04 AM
Captain Haley it is the "forcing" anyone into anything that I take issue with. Sure we can share information about the advantages of taking the bus. We can certainly choose not to subsidize parking or other services for any group. But we should never attempt to "force" change because we have a different opinion. Of course this is what makes me a non-supporter of Das. Even when he does good things he manages to add in something that makes my skin crawl. I would much prefer to hear from someone who respects others points of view and encourages change through education and encouragement rather than force.
COMMENT 287855	2012-06-14 11:13 AM
850-The difference of what? Paying the part-time minimum wage no benefit employee to man the booth and ticket cars? Cleaning and maintenance cannot be that much so the major cost would be taxes. The owner could continue to the current agreement with business owners for payments to keep rates where they are and collect the same amount the city does. Remember Helene is not saying this is costing the city anything. This is a revenue stream for the city, a money maker, which is why she does not want to sell them. A private owner could do the same.
DILLYDALLY	2012-06-14 11:14 AM
MSSB you are correct, it is an assumption but a safe one. The lots would be very expensive and would require significant revenue to just maintain and staff much less repay the loans. All other cities I have been to that have private parking lots charge significantly more, at least 2-3x and as much as $40 for more than 8 hours. So why not here? The only reason Paseo lot charges the same as the city lots is that it was required as a condition of building the lot (and the mall I think). So if the state sells our lots to private parties, I assume that the new owners will not be charitable and be capitalist. In other words they will maximize profits. Maximum profits does not mean filling the lots, in fact probably the opposite, (I wont go into the economics unless you want me to). So with fewer patrons downtown businesses will suffer.
COMMENT 287809	2012-06-14 12:02 PM
Because so many people have been now trained to hate private industry and capitalism, they immediately think private ownership is the equivalent of greedy, gouging profit hungry fat cats who go to bed at night thinking of ways to squeeze more money out of the little people.. Private industry is a creation of market forces; a wiling buyer and a willing seller. It is government run services that are bloated, inefficient, expensive and unsustainable once spending other people's money runs out. Our public schools and progressive politicians have gotten this all twisted around. This is finally changing because we have run out of other people's money to spend. Voters are making much better choices now they have seen the excesses of public union spending - that is your real fat cats like SEIU and CTA Watch out for these particularly when you vote next time.
COMMENT 287880	2012-06-14 12:18 PM
@809 Government run services are bloated and inefficient, huh? How do you explain Medicare, which is a far more efficient program than private insurance? I know, the exception isn't the rule, but you can't make a blanket statement like that without acknowledging exceptions. ;)
DILLYDALLY	2012-06-14 12:27 PM
We are expected to believe that doing away with government bloat and inefficiency in our downtown parking lots will make the prices drop? A private buyer is not going to give you more than 75 mins free and less then $1.50 an hour. There is a place for government and a place for private sector. Neither is the perfect solution for everything. The goal of a private business is not to be liked or to be beneficial to the city. Just because someone COULD buy the lot and charge the same amount, doesn't mean they will. Out of the kindness of your heart would you accept a fraction of the profit you could otherwise? The purpose of the private sector is $$$ no ancillary benefits come into consideration if you cant monetize them.
COMMENT 287889	2012-06-14 12:32 PM
Medicare is not efficient by any stretch of the imagination. There is a benefit to the program and it fills a necessary need but it is far from efficient. There is fraud and waste in medicare that keeps it from being the exception. There are private insurance plans that make Medicare pale in comparison both for the insured and for the doctors providing care. There are also private plans that do little to no good for the insured. There are always exceptions to the rule you are right. Saying it is better than ALL private plans is an inacurate blanket statement as well. ;)
COMMENT 287898	2012-06-14 12:50 PM
Of course private businesses want to be liked. Why do you think they do so much community involvement? If people do not like a business they do not use the business. Without customers there is no business. While I understand that a private owner certainly could increase the cost of downtown parking it is entirely possible they would leave it exactly the way it is. The city charges the business owners to allow their customers some free parking and reduced rates so it isn't as if the city is providing charity to the business owners here. What if a local family purchased the lot and their teenage/ young adult children ran the booth and performed maintenance? They would pay property and business taxes on their small family owned business. It would be in their best interest to keep the rates as is and the agreements with the business owners because the system seems to be working. Plenty of revenue with tourists and shoppers wanting to use the lots. I am not saying this is what would happen but it is one of the many possibilities.
COMMENT 287902	2012-06-14 01:00 PM
Thank Goodness.
DILLYDALLY	2012-06-14 01:10 PM
A business wants to be liked if it has bearing on revenue. If not, then a business could care less. Here is where we disagree... -Lot owners dont need to be liked, their product is in demand and supply is limited. -The lots cost more and require more staff and maintenance than a family run business can provide. -The city has a vested interest in healthy business, a private lot owner will not. -The private owner will want maximum profit. -More money can be made by raising prices than leaving them the same. Proof: the lots are often full and turning away cars. Thus demand is higher than supply and in a private business that means raise prices or create more supply. So they either build garages to make more supply or raise prices.
COMMENT 287915	2012-06-14 01:25 PM
Is this comment for real? "-The city has a vested interest in healthy business, a private lot owner will not." Have you been downtown lately? The city's bum problems have affected businesses way more than the shopper's parking situation ever could.
DILLYDALLY	2012-06-14 01:41 PM
Yes, it is for real. You propose a conspiracy where by the city secretly wants businesses to fail, secretly ships homeless people here and tells them to hang out downtown, doesn't actually want the extra tax revenue from business and tourism? What seems harder to believe? This conspiracy above, or maybe that they havent found an appropriate way to solve the problem yet.
COMMENT 287937	2012-06-14 02:10 PM
It seems they have done everything possible to make the problem worse in my opinion. And they refuse to support business owners by adopting practices that work in other tourist communities. We definitely disagree that private businesses care less about their customers than government run business. Have you been to the DMV, county clerk's office, or many other government run facilities lately? I definitely don't get a welcoming feeling when I frequent any of them. To say that the parking lots take more than a family owned business could provide is just as assumptive as saying they would raise the rates. You can say your family could not operate the business. Your family would raise the rates and care nothing about the surrounding business owners. Those statements would be fair. Saying the city is the only option because any other option would end in tragedy is just not true.
COMMENT 287939	2012-06-14 02:14 PM
Wow good to see some real back and forth without vitreal. Having lived in four different city's about the size of SB I can tell you the private lots cost A LOT more. Thanks Das, don't always agree but this was good for SB.
COMMENT 287809	2012-06-14 02:44 PM
Anyone claiming Medicare is well-run and efficient must not see the bills sent out that Medicare pays - totally inefficient system and the reason health care costs are so high in the US for so little quality in return. Medicare is nothing more than a pot of money to be harvested in any way, shape or form by the medical industry with the poor, hapless patient being only a warm-body go-between the government and those doing the money harvesting. Sorry but diseases, conditions and treatments are manufactured solely to get at Medicare money. It is money down a rat hole and US health quality statistics prove it is a system that does not even work. Parking lot attendant jobs are perfect for retired people who want to pick up some minimum wage cash. But city union demands we prohibit this sort of flexible hiring and we are all poorer as a result.
COMMENT 287965	2012-06-14 02:51 PM
287809: Those bills that Medicare pays have nothing to do with Medicare's efficiency or lack thereof. They have to do with our for-profit healthcare industry that has zero cost controls, and hospitals, labs and pharmaceutical companies that are raking in tons of money at all our our expense. Private insurers pay even larger, stupider bills. Medicare is able to negotiate better prices on many things because they have such huge purchasing power. And uninsured people just get stuck paying those ridiculous bills. Your complaints are completely misdirected. Do you really think private insurers are more responsible with the "big pot of money" they get? They just give all the extra money to their executives in the form of ridiculously high salaries and bonuses.
DILLYDALLY	2012-06-14 03:05 PM
What the city has done or not done to get rid of the homeless problem can be discussed but it would seem very hard to argue that they want the problem and try to make it worse. I honestly dont know a lot about past efforts to change the situation, and cant think of what I would do. Almost feels like damned if you do and damned if you dont for most solutions I can think of. Glad its not my job to fix it. MSSB I think you missed my point. The lot owners will care about their customers, however they have no financial incentive to care about yours. But the city, as owner of the lot, does have a financial incentive to care about the downtown businesses. And regarding the business being bought by a nice kind family that will care as much about the community as their bank account... I always conceded it was possible just not remotely likely in my opinion. It sounds like we disagree on that. Considering the money that could be made off the lot (currently 4.3M a year according to the daily sound, probably more than double that with rate changes) the sale price would certainly be in the $20M or more range. Towbes, Radius, and other investment groups local and out of area woud be in the bidding. Now that is all fine, I love capitalism and take part every day. However I think with many things it wont work, and these lots are a good example.
COMMENT 288021	2012-06-14 06:15 PM
I too want to applaud the level of discourse in this thread. I learned from it.
COMMENT 288049P	2012-06-14 07:45 PM
Medicaid Fraud Audits Cost Five Times Amount U.S. Found By Alex Wayne - Jun 13, 2012 9:01 PM PT A program to fight fraud in the Medicaid health system for the poor has cost the U.S. at least $102 million in auditing fees since 2008 while identifying less than $20 million in overpayments, investigators found. The majority of the audits conducted by 10 companies were discontinued, produced “low or no findings” or were “put on hold,” the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said today in a report. Three companies won’t have their contracts renewed, and two others will be reassigned, said Peter Budetti, the director of program integrity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/medicaid-fraud-audits-cost-five-times-amount-u-s-found.html
COMMENT 287809	2012-06-14 07:49 PM
Complaining about Medicare does not mean private health insurance earns praise instead. Private care is made even worse by those who still get it "for free" and don't care how inefficient and wasteful it is. Public employees primarily. Health in the US is whatever condition your doctor can get insurance payments for. Harsh, but stated by those actually inside the health care profession who are laughing all the way to the bank. 99% of good health is common sense, good habits and internal happiness. Let insurance pick up the trauma cases, the genetic disabilities and just plain bad luck of the draw. But now the medical industry not only treats the worried well; they go out of the way to create the health worries to start out with.
COMMENT 288049P	2012-06-14 07:50 PM
CMS has removed health professionals with outdated and invalid enrollment records as it works to strengthen Medicare participation rules. By CHARLES FIEGL, Posted June 14, 2012. Washington Medicare has revoked or deactivated the billing privileges of more than 23,000 health professionals and equipment suppliers during the initial stages of a nationwide enrollment revalidation effort. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has enrolled or revalidated more than 275,000 professionals since March 25, 2011, when the agency began using strengthened measures to rescreen 1.5 million participants. Medicare officials have targeted areas of the program, such as the durable medical equipment field, that are susceptible to fraud and removed invalid suppliers from the program, CMS Center for Program Integrity Director Peter Budetti, MD, said during a June 7 House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing. Dr. Budetti did not have a breakdown of the types of health professionals and suppliers whose privileges have been ended. But CMS has used an automatic screening process to remove several physicians because they did not have state licenses or were not in federal enrollment databases, he said. The system also will alert the agency when doctors lose licenses to practice medicine, commit felonies or die — allowing CMS to prevent those physician billing numbers from being used improperly. “This is all new,” Dr. Budetti told the Government Organization, Efficiency and Financial Management subcommittee. “Most of what was done in the past was done manually and substantially less efficient.” CMS is using a “twin pillar” strategy for improving Medicare program integrity, Dr. Budetti said. One pillar includes the enhanced enrollment screening, while the other features predictive analytic technology to detect abnormal billing patterns. http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/06/11/gvsd0614.htm
COMMENT 288053	2012-06-14 07:51 PM
Wow, so many comments and information. I just wanted to say I didn't vote for Das, and never will.
COMMENT 287809	2012-06-15 06:02 AM
The medical fraud found in Medicare is not the blatant financial fraud you can pick up in an audit or blatant conflicts of interest within the medical industry. It is the medical fraud of creating unnecessary treatment, conditions and fighting-evidence based medicine. It is the fraud of geographical disparity in treatment and payments that continues to exist, when it is shown there is no difference in outcomes. It is the fraud of practicing defensive medicine with over-treatment because of a doctors fear of malpractice to protect themselves, regardless of whether this over-treatment is necessary, helpful or even harmful to the patient. America needs to drastically change its attitude about health and who is really in charge (you) before this present system bankrupts us all and we have nothing to show for it.
COMMENT 288104	2012-06-15 06:42 AM
I wasn't going to vote for Das, but now I believe I will.
COMMENT 288171	2012-06-15 09:40 AM
This decision has not changed my opinion or vote, Das is not the person I want speaking on my behalf. I would like to know how the city will be using the lot funds now that they will not be going towards RDA initiatives. Forgive me if this question has already been asked and answered I must have missed it.
DILLYDALLY	2012-06-15 11:08 AM
Great question MSSB I have not seen that addressed so someone should chime in if they know the answer. Maybe the store owners can get a reduction on the money they pay to offset parking costs? Would love to hear suggestions from the crowd on what that parking money should be used for. I would say betterment of downtown is a logical place to start but very general.
DEE D	2012-06-15 01:04 PM
When I think of government, I think of publicly owned. Our public schools, our parks, our courts, police stations, fire stations, and yes, our city parking lots and those they employ to maintain and run them - I think of them as among the few resources and servants that I, as a citizen, have an equal right to with the wealthy. If parking lots go private and parking becomes much more expensive (which it will) I won't take a bus - it's hard to do much shopping on a bus (and I do and have used buses for transportation) - I will just shop downtown much, much less. I will go to Santa Maria and Ventura more, and visit friends & family, recreate, & shop, combining all efficiently (as I do sometimes anyways.) Downtown shopping is as much an entertainment and excursion (we often take out-of-town visitors downtown and even use the trolleys) and E & E is the first to go when something has to...
DEE D	2012-06-15 01:06 PM
P.S. Thank you, Das, and: Someone has yet to explain to me how the State can force the City to auction off City-owned property bought with local property taxes for the benefit of the local citizenry?
COMMENT 289147	2012-06-18 03:09 PM
Considering the RDA money that built those parking lots was basically stolen from our school budgets, I'd like to see that money go back to the schools. Then maybe we won't need a parcel tax after all.

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