"Fair share"

It's an interesting thing to see LaToya Cantrell adopt this phrase as a rhetorical staple.  She's been using it most often in reference to the ongoing fight over revenue dedicated to the tourism cabal.  But now it's bleeding out into other areas.

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said her office will be going after dollars that are owed to the city in many areas -- including one uncovered in a FOX 8 Investigation into overdue parking tickets and citations from traffic cameras.

An examination of data from the City of New Orleans found $245.9 Million owed to the city for tickets dating back to 2008.

Collecting on money owed to the city follows Mayor Cantrell’s latest effort to make sure the city gets its share of fees and services.

“Across the board New Orleans needs to get her fair share and we are just seeing too many examples where this isn’t taking place,” Cantrell said Tuesday in a one-on-one interview with FOX 8′s Rob Masson.

Now we're talking about parking tickets so it could easily mean they're coming after you with bounty hunters and shit for your 40 dollar expired meter citation.  That's not great. But it kinda sorta sounds like she means to go after bigger violators like Fed Ex, for example. 

One of the biggest violators of unpaid parking tickets dating back years were FedEx delivery trucks illegally parking in the city. One truck we spotted making deliveries in the Central Business District owed more than $75,000 in parking fines. We also found trucks making deliveries with parking tickets still held in the dash.

“While we’ve been so aggressive on the residential side, I only think it’s fair to go after those dollars left on the table, by delivery companies not paying their fair share,” Cantrell said.

The way she phrases that isn't clear. It's almost like she sees Fed Ex and Joe Schmoe as equally viable targets. If so, that's not good.  It's certainly not "fair" anyway. And remember this is the mayor who told us, "I'm not talking about taking from the rich and giving to the poor and all that kind of crap" so maybe this is a real blind spot for her. 

Still, keep talking about fairness. That might get us to a better place.