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Government must not compete with private industry

Vehicles ordered to be towed by Niles police officers soon will be taken not to a privately operated lot, but to a city-operated impound yard, as approved this month by Niles City Council. The idea is to make money for the cash-strapped city.

Likewise, Weathersfield Township recently created an impound lot that has generated about $100,000 over the last year. Liberty also started its own impound lot, and so has Bazetta Township – each in an effort to drum up money.

In fact, Niles Service Director Jim DePasquale said he expects the new impound lot in that city to generate even more money than previously projected. The lot is part of the city’s financial recovery plan for the city in state-ordered fiscal emergency.

The towing companies that previously hauled impounded vehicles to private lots now will bring these vehicles to a Niles city lot. In addition to whatever fee the towing company charges, that city now will charge a $75 administrative fee and a daily storage fee of $25 per day the vehicle was stored. Boats, commercial vehicles or other types of towed vehicles will face even stiffer charges of $50 a day. Semi-trucks, dump trucks and garbage trucks will be charged $100 a day. For now, the city lot will be unmanned, but if it is successful, Niles officials eventually will hire workers to staff it.

The idea of operating this impound business and the potential amount of easy money that can be obtained from vehicle owners seems to be generating a lot of excitement among local government officials.

We, however, don’t share in that enthusiasm and fear there is potential for this to quickly get out of hand.

Foremost, we have a problem with government delving into any concept that takes business away from private industry. It seems government leaders increasingly are forgetting that the purpose of government always has been to provide essential services to citizens. How is operating a towing yard in any way an essential service? If local government can’t afford to provide the services it needs to, then it should re-evaluate where it is spending its money.

This also should be a big concern when new ways of generating revenue begin to directly compete with private business. We have a strong inkling that local private impound yard operators are less than excited about the prospect of their elected officials opting to compete with them. Potential, of course, also exists for an increasing number of vehicles to be towed at the hope of further growing revenue or at least the perception of such.

As the old adage goes, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Trying to find ways for government to make easy money should be considered very cautiously and ultimately it should be avoided.

editorial@tribtoday.com

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