I thought this would interest homeowners & renters as well as housing providers, so I'm passing it on. Al krigman In a message dated 3/2/2009 11:40:41 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, xxx writes:
I went to the public meeting about trash and recycling the other night, and it was interesting and productive. The point of the meeting was to get public input, and the city folks seemed very receptive. Short dumping was discussed and taken seriously, there was enthusiasm for enforcement against offenders, and some ideas on how to better enforce. It sounded like the $5 a week proposal would probably not be the final outcome. There was some discussion about having some sort of base-level flat fee, and also adopting a system that some other cities use, where you buy marked trash bags at any supermarket or corner store, and then put out as much trash as you want. The incentive to create less trash would come from the desire to buy fewer bags, but the foundation of the sanitation system and the necessary overhead of trucks, fuel, staff, etc, would be stable. There wasn't much discussion of incentive-based recycling. Recycling is a sticky issue these days anyway, since commodity prices are erratic and low. According to this Daily News piece (http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20090218_Trash_fee_-_an_idea_city_can_t _refuse_.html) the $5 number was a hypothetical. All city departments were asked to project what 10, 20, and 30 percent budget cuts would look like. A 20% Streets department cut would mean job cuts and service cuts. The $5 was one way to avoid that. Landlords came up and it was assumed that they would probably pass the fee onto tenants. Rina Cutler illustrated the connections in the city budget with a cutesy anecdote. She goes to the coffee place across from the Municipal Services Building and the barista says, "So I hear you want to charge me $5 a week for trash, when right now I don't pay anything?" Cutler says, "Well, weren't you just giving me a hard time about keeping the library open in your neighborhood? How about paying $5 for trash so that your library stays open?" And the barista says, "I'll give you the $5 right now!" Frankly, I think the freaking out is overblown and unbecoming. Maybe a better use of indignation would be divert waste from landfills by providing composting bins and working toward expanded city composting. In Atlantic County, municipal compost is actually a revenue generator. http://www.acua.com/acua/index.aspx Stephanie Alarcon **************Need a job? Find employment help in your area. (http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=employment_agencies&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000005)
