Please read the message below to learn more about this issue, and then call or write the Board of Supervisors before July 16th to keep them from making the fee to enter the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park permanent!
While libertarians tend to see user fees as reasonable (it's fairer that those who use a service are the ones to pay for it), when government raises or creates such fees without giving any money back to the taxpayers, they amount to just one more tax that is feeding the beast, soaking us for something we already paid for without giving us anything in return. Ditto for "public private partnerships" -- better in theory than government operating on its own at higher cost and lower efficiency, but not so good in practice when it means politicians giving cozy sweetheart deals to favored contractors, effectively corrupting organizations that should be independent by making them the beneficiaries of State largess.
Recent behavior gives ample evidence that San Francisco's city government is bent on gouging every last dollar it can from the public in one form or another, even at the price of destroying the city's cultural abundance, putting the squeeze not just on park-goers, but on street fairs, music festivals, drivers, and on and on. We need to draw a line in the sand and oppose ALL fee increases not accompanied by tax give-backs.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Outreach Director, Libertarian Party of San Francisco