Yep, it’s budget talk time at the good ol city council and one of the things on the table is the 133% increase in the Garbage Fee which by juggling around funds, motor fuel taxes, and the like, our city council will have us believe that the original garbage fee went to garbage collection. Wrong!
Let’s review. The Garbage Fee was dreamed up during the Ransburg era as a way to help offset the cost of policing. In fact, it was supposed to go to special policing projects like POP where the police and the city would use the funds to clean up neighborhoods and thus make them better for the citizens. A couple of problems ensued and one was how to make citizens pay the fee without simply thumbing their noses at it. The Fee was to be billed quarterly, 3 times a year at $24 and was to be added to our water bills, Illinois American Water (IA) who just before was dragged through the mud in a huge campaign when the city wanted to buy them out and kick them out of town. But, many citizens realized that if the city couldn’t paint a straight line on a road, then many thought the city sure as hell couldn’t run a water company so the plan was dropped and our city staff climbed into bed with IA, for $80k a year to collect our fee via their water bills. Yep, nobody does something for nothing but then IA came back to the city bitching that every 4 months, they had to reload their computer software in order to bill the $24 which was a pain in the ass so they asked if the city could bill monthly at $6 thus eliminating the software change. In comes Councilman Turner who proposed just that BUT under the guise that our dear leaders, himself included, were simply worried about the elderly and people on fixed incomes that paying $24 every 4 months was a burden. Therefore paying just a little $6 fee every month would be easier for these folks. You see $6, or $24 3 times a year is $72 anyway you look at it. So basically you are taking $72 from the elderly and people on fixed incomes. What a bunch of Saints huh? And this great fee was called the Garbage Fee so as to make it much more swallowable to the people of Peoria many of whom had no idea and many still don’t have any idea where the money is actually going. Remember, we had Waste Management for city garbage collection and their contract was INCLUDED in the property tax bill we all pay if you own property.
Another fee that many on our council said would be temporary and many said it will never increase. If you believed them on that, than I’m Idi Amin. In fact, one councilperson actually campaigned on the line that she would repeal this unfair tax and she called it unfair. Barbara Van Auken. Well that changed tunes when she got elected and apparently those in the 2nd enjoy her staggering about and re-elected her again but then the 2nd has enjoyed a lot of city funds over the past years. Let’s, see…. moving all the utilities, telephone poles and widening the sidewalks on Main St with new ornamental lighting and hanging plant baskets. New sidewalks on Columbia Terr. and side streets also with new ornamental lights, a new arch or arbor built at Rebecca Street and she actually promised them one at the other end. A lot of money, and whether you call it grants or whatever, it’s taxpayer money just the same has been handed to the 2nd while the 1st and the 3rd got nothing.
In the meantime, the POP patrols were silently canceled and yet the garbage fee went on. Police were laid off and we have seen how crime has taken over every corner of Peoria. The fire department is manned by it’s bare teeth. If this city has two major fires, the rest of us go unprotected fire wise. The city council is now debating the new budget which if approved, will make every person in Peoria rent a garbage tote. A big 96 gallon one on wheels and guess who owns them? PDC, the company that undercut the bidding of WM and won for the first time in many decades, the city garbage collection contract. PDC knew they under cut WM but this was an opportunity to get their foot in the door and besides, I’ll bet there are many friends of PDC in or “upper” circles of local government. Also, this rental fee is to be included as part of that 133% increase in the garbage fee which means that come bid time for city collections, PDC is sure to win again and the city council can now say with a straight face that some of the garbage fee is going to garbage collection. Legal butts covered. In fact PDC is asking for a 3.8% increase in their contract which is high considering the consumer price index hasn’t gone above 3.8% in over 10 years.
Now here is where we have to hunt the pea under the shell. If this is all approved, then the city council will shift funds from the motor fuel taxes to help pay for road work on our streets which has a back log of repairs and Lord knows we need an Allen Road extension (this is where the money will really go, out north) which baffles me. Isn’t these motor fuel tax funds supposed to go to road repairs in the first place? Then why are we juggling a garbage fee, forcing residents to rent totes from a private company for profit, then using the 133% increase to pay this same company for their projected rate increase which was under bided in the first place by PDC?
My questions are this. Why in the hell do we have a garbage fee in the first place? Why doesn’t the city council just raise the property taxes to cover basic services, increase the police to fight crime, and dump the garbage fee saving $80k a year we pay to IA? Why are we giving $3.8 million to a few people in the warehouse district when we have budget issues on the basic level? Why are we building a hotel when no bank anywhere on Earth would fully fund the same project and yet we give a developer a 2 year interest free loan of $7 million? Why is the city risking the retire benefits of our city employees using this $7 million? Why are we, as a city, bending over backwards to relocated a strip club? Why is the city using so much taxpayer money to build a museum that has been so scaled back from the original plans, their own people have lied to the public about it? Remember IMAX?
Why? Because our dear Mayor, for one, is dead set against a property tax increase of any kind and yet after my 30 years in Peoria owning property, my property tax has never ever gone down. They say because the value of my home has increased thus with the multiplier, I pay more. What another crock of shit. I’ll bet my home, like many others in this area has decreased in value because of the recent economic things that have happened in our country but my property tax is as high as ever. Why? So, raise the damn property tax a small percentage. That way everyone pays fairly. We can increase police services, get a handle on crime, clean and repair our streets, and keep some jobs which this town needs. The average cost of this increase at the worse would be an additional $100 a year on a $100,000 home (maybe less) and that is $68 cheaper than the damn garbage fee increase per year. With a moderate property tax increase, we could eliminate the garbage fee. One less tax to pay and businesses who use basic services would now pay their fair share unlike with the garbage fee now.
It’s called the cost of doing business. Grocery stores do it. Gas stations do it. Why not the city? We have a crime problem so more police are needed. Tell the Chief do whatever it takes, hire more and get a handle on it. The fire department needs more staff for better and safer coverage, do it! The street department says we need to repair X amount of streets, then do it! It will cost $xxx amount this year so adjust the property tax and pay for it. STOP dreaming up fees and taxes for us to pay. Damn it we left England for this very same reason. When things improve, when crime is handled and streets are repaired and basic services like snow removal is great, then people will want to stay here. Then private business will want to invest. Then we can lower taxes as the base grows. As it stands now, writing checks on our backs Mr. Mayor, it is killing us. Raise the DAMN PROPERTY TAX and get on with doing CITY business and let the private sector fund their own projects.
15 comments:
Again, very well elucidated! I will add that the idea people who litter and cause garbage problems (inner city neighborhoods, as stated in a recent PJS article) will not change their disgusting habits simply because everyone now has a giant/expensive container: they will simply ignore it, as usual. Where is Code Enforcement versus forcing this new expense?! Better to bring that populace into compliance than financially punish everyone else! Good Ol' Peoria, stepping over a dollar to save a dime!
Code Enforcement has been gutted by the city of Peoria. They are useless. Think not? Then give them a call and complain about a code infraction. Watch what happens. Watching paint dry would be better.
Agree with the assessment of lack of code enforcement which generates many unnecessary problems. If they would enforce the various codes, all these other expenses would not be required! Misappropriation of funds: no money spent where it should be allocated.
The people in the Moss-Bradley neighborhoods got increased PPD protection.
They have money and they vote. They support BVA's drunken actions. She ensures that the money spent in the 2nd is spent in the W. Bluff. the only exception is the 1/4 Million$ to replace (not repair) sidewalks in the association next to hers, but with the district shifting she needs to buy votes with out tax dollars. She also granted money to the businesses in the Sheridan Triangle that backed her.
I can just see all those totes laying in the middle of the alleys in my area with garbage spewing all over the place. Again, those of us who put our garbage in solid containers and clean up our property will be paying for those who don't. Raise our property taxes and double them on rental homes. That's the way to go. Maybe those absentee landlords will wake up and realize what the neighbors have to put up with. Then again...maybe not.
Right on target again, PAP!
How do like the anxiety this is giving our tiny frail old folks?
You know, the old people who sit around all day and fret over who's going to cut the grass? Who's going to shovel the snow? Why are those kids walking on my grass and singing nasty lyrics and busting out my window. Why are they swearing n wearing hoodies and invading my neighbors homes? Has the snail-mail dude been here yet with my Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes results? I love to talk his ear off.
How are they gonna deal with wrestling a 96 gallon tote that's bigger than they are with one hand and a cane in the other through the wind and snow over uneven terrain? They could easily fall and freeze to death!
Hoarding trash inside the homes will be the alternative. But hey we'll get a new TV show: Hoarding: Buried Alive -Peoria Edition.
Young Peoria councilpeople answer, "Let them eat cake!" Peoria firemen will have to practice finding bodies amongst the added clutter of discarded meals on wheels containers.
Goodness People, you act like Peoria is the first damn community in the world to utilize toters! They are in use in MANY MANY MANY other communities and have been for year. Civilization didn't end -- old people didn't die moving them around -- and the communities didn't become urban landfills. We have to stop behaving so parochial like we're the most unique community in Illinois. Our failure to be truly progressive (not fake progressive) and emulate what works in other communities, is going to mean a long slow decline - maybe not so long or slow at the rate we're going.
While most communities utilize the larger 96 gallon size they often have a smaller one available for those that wish to utilize it. To be honest, they are almost as easy to roll (given design and larger wheels) as the MUCH smaller garbage cans most folks utilize now.
I can go either way with whether the garbage collection is paid by fee or property tax, but everyone has to realize that it isn't a free service, the City is broke, and something had to change. If we don't want fewer services then we have to raise revenues (whether from frees or taxes).
OK we now have it on good authority that old people are not fall risks. Heh heh.
If the city needs money cause we're broke and not progressive or parochial, then come on and get some, but don't demand the large toter size requirements for the sake of safety.
"Where is Code Enforcement versus forcing this new expense?!"
Code Enforcement has always been useless, even when they were properly funded. So far one of my neighbors has caught a code enforcement officer sleeping in his car behind their garage. One of my friends used to work at Bergner's and she said the code enforcement car would be in the parking lot when she got to work and still there when she went to lunch. In my East Bluff neighborhood it seems that the only people who ever get notices from code enforcement are the people who take care of their property. Those who have grass ass deep don't get cited. The reason being that those of us who take care of thing are the ones who will pay the fines. That's why one of the officers, illegally, damn near took down a panel of our fence to try to look inside our backyard in hopes of being able to bust us for something.
The city is broken. We need to vote out the majority of the morons on the City Council and get fresh blood in there. Preferably people who actually care what the citizen want not ones who are busy trying to pay for votes in special projects and new development. Too bad the people who will work to change things don't have the financial support to be able to run a successful campaign and get elected.
Sometimes we are all do something that psychologists call projection. We take things from our personal experience and project them onto others positively and negatively. I can lug a tote, so every residents can lug a tote. My driveway and property is flat and level so everyone in Peoria will have no problem walking on their driveway wit a large tote.
BVA is done. She’s burned her supporters in the West Bluff too many times in her current term. She’s on the outs with most, if not all, neighborhood leaders. She’s chosen to be a member of the Mayor’s coalition over the needs of her constituents. Why does the 1st and 3rd get nothing? Your district reps are ineffective. Vote Gully out. Fire Riggenbach!
I don't believe the the west bluff will ever fire BVA. She gets them arbors, extra police coverage, etc. hell, they don't even have to mow their own pocket parks like the rest of the city.
That bunch will burn their own children alive before knocking her off her broomstick.
There are several West Bluff neighborhood leaders who used to support BVA, but have been burned by her on numerous issues. People are mad at her poor representation. There is no way she’s getting back in. Maybe you can work to get Gulley out?
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