Penalizing the poor

Mayor Williams and a supporting cast of lawmakers want taxpayers to go along with their plan to help the poor. Their truth is a lie. In fact, if the D.C. Council allows the mayor to have his way, residents on fixed incomes and the working poor could lose up to 10 percent of their income.

In his 2005 budget plan, the mayor proposes funding increased entitlements to the poor by raising fees on every aspect of owning, driving and parking a motor vehicle in the District, including doubling the residential parking tax to $30. The mayor claims it’s a simple matter of priorities — of “balancing pain and gain” is how he put it. We doubt the mayor and his policy-makers have looked into the actual financial pain his plan would inflict on the poor.

With a poverty rate of 17.6 percent in 2001-02, the latest Census data suggests that “more families are living below the poverty line, or less than $18,566 for a family of four,” the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, said last year. If that indeed is the case, then that family of four cannot afford the high costs of driving in the District.

Assume, for example, that the aforementioned family has a used SUV. That family would have to pay:

• $26 to get a copy of the title.

• $25 to have the vehicle inspected.

• $30 for the residential parking tax.

• $115 for the registration.

• $1,260 in excise taxes on an $18,000 vehicle.

If mom had to renew her driver’s license, she would have to hand over another $45. If dad had tickets and the family’s jalopy had been booted and towed, they could not get the SUV registered without forking over:

• A $100 tow fee.

• A $50 boot fee.

• A $20-per-day storage fee.

If dad’s license had been suspended because those tickets were moving violations, they also would have to pay:

• $98 to have his driver’s license reinstated.

The total — excluding the costs of any tickets — is $1,769. Can the mayor, who is facing a possible recall, and Council members Sandy Allen, Harold Brazil, Kevin Chavous, Jack Evans, Adrian Fenty and Carol Schwartz, who are facing re-election, afford to continue penalizing the poor?