sweet_chin_music
04-05-2005, 11:18 PM
Here's a great idea from our city council....FOR ME TO POOP ON! (sorry, just saw an ad with Triumph)
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1111475720/10
Basically, the idea is that all city residents would be required to pay for trash removal from their residence.
Now, that isn't that bad of an idea. It makes some sense for the city to require residents to chose a trash removal company. I do agree with councilmen Aguilera about "overregulating", but I doubt our town would get much cleaner if nothing happens, so why not try something new.
But here comes the part that I shake my head at....
They are considering setting fees and those fees would then vary on a "pay as you throw" sliding scale.
WHA WHA WHAT???
So instead of telling people they could choose which company they want (and they do vary in price), our council wants to set fees on how much trash we throw away?
Why am I perturbed about this? Let's examine...
#1- If they just stopped at requiring residents to choose a trash removal company, people could shop around and select the most affordable company to meet their needs. No reason for the city to do anything but sit back and watch. But noooooo, they have to interject and say how much we are going to pay.
#2- Don't kid me for a second that their rates wouldn't be higher than what is currently on the market if they control the rates. Somehow, someway they are going to figure out a way to make some revenue out of this. It may not be much, but it's nothing less than a secret tax increase.
#3- The sliding scale. So a family of five is going to have to pay more than a family of three? That doesn't seem right. Sure, they contribute more trash, but as it stands now they pay the same thing as a family of three or a family of ten. And what about the family of five living on the Eastside that is scraping by as it is? It's fair to make them pay more than a family of three living in El Camino?
#4- How are you going to measure what people throw away? What ever method, it will cost more than it currently does.
One problem that hasn't been brought up AFAIK is what happens when people figure out the easy way to get out of the higher fees is to just dump trash on the side of the road or take their trash to another bin someplace else? It's already happening now and I guaran-damn-tee that we'll see it increase 5x. Then what? The richer neighborhoods will be clean and the poorer neighborhoods will be even dirtier and our wise city council will be looking at a much bigger problem.
Is there an easy answer? Nope. But charging mandatory fees and implementing a sliding scale isn't even the hard answer.
It's the foolish one.
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1111475720/10
Basically, the idea is that all city residents would be required to pay for trash removal from their residence.
Now, that isn't that bad of an idea. It makes some sense for the city to require residents to chose a trash removal company. I do agree with councilmen Aguilera about "overregulating", but I doubt our town would get much cleaner if nothing happens, so why not try something new.
But here comes the part that I shake my head at....
They are considering setting fees and those fees would then vary on a "pay as you throw" sliding scale.
WHA WHA WHAT???
So instead of telling people they could choose which company they want (and they do vary in price), our council wants to set fees on how much trash we throw away?
Why am I perturbed about this? Let's examine...
#1- If they just stopped at requiring residents to choose a trash removal company, people could shop around and select the most affordable company to meet their needs. No reason for the city to do anything but sit back and watch. But noooooo, they have to interject and say how much we are going to pay.
#2- Don't kid me for a second that their rates wouldn't be higher than what is currently on the market if they control the rates. Somehow, someway they are going to figure out a way to make some revenue out of this. It may not be much, but it's nothing less than a secret tax increase.
#3- The sliding scale. So a family of five is going to have to pay more than a family of three? That doesn't seem right. Sure, they contribute more trash, but as it stands now they pay the same thing as a family of three or a family of ten. And what about the family of five living on the Eastside that is scraping by as it is? It's fair to make them pay more than a family of three living in El Camino?
#4- How are you going to measure what people throw away? What ever method, it will cost more than it currently does.
One problem that hasn't been brought up AFAIK is what happens when people figure out the easy way to get out of the higher fees is to just dump trash on the side of the road or take their trash to another bin someplace else? It's already happening now and I guaran-damn-tee that we'll see it increase 5x. Then what? The richer neighborhoods will be clean and the poorer neighborhoods will be even dirtier and our wise city council will be looking at a much bigger problem.
Is there an easy answer? Nope. But charging mandatory fees and implementing a sliding scale isn't even the hard answer.
It's the foolish one.