We had to chuckle at Mayor Alan Hanks' response to the complaints he got from employees at the Pennington County courthouse about the city's new downtown parking proposal.

The city wants to free up more downtown parking spaces for the general public with a new parking plan that would, among other things, direct downtown employees to low-cost parking meters on the periphery of downtown.

Last week, state, city and county employees who work at the courthouse complex pointed out that the new plan would require them to change their parking habits. County Auditor Julie Pearson complained that the new plan might even force county employees to feed meters, or park further away from work or, heaven forbid, use the free parking ramp next door.

Yes, Hanks replied. It would.

Like Hanks, we have trouble working up much sympathy for government employees on that count. Kudos to the mayor for pointing out the obvious: Nobody can demand that their job comes complete with a free, convenient parking place as one of its fringe benefits.

Most people who work in the downtown core pay for parking one way or the other. They either dish out $20-$30 a month for leased parking space, feed a meter or do the two-hour shuffle and accept an occasional $5 parking ticket as the price of it.

So the expectation on the part of courthouse workers that they should somehow be exempt from the cost of parking, or the inconvenience of an extra block's walk, strikes us as more than a little presumptuous. And did we mention ungrateful?

Because, unlike most downtown workers, the courthouse complex employees actually do have free, convenient parking.

They enjoy free parking at the Pennington County parking ramp, just steps from their workplaces. The four-story parking ramp is a terrific facility that provides quick, easy access to the courthouse and to the city/county public safety building.

Most downtown employees would be thrilled with just such a parking spot. Maybe courthouse employees should be, too.