By: Diane Benjamin
Monday night the Council is holding a Work Session to hear the results of the Fee study. See the packet information here: Fee Study
Enterprise Funds were created to raise taxes. Solid waste pickup was included in the taxes you already paid just 10 short years ago. Monday night the Council will impose a fee for what you put on the curb, or what your neighbors put on your curb. Let the neighbor wars begin!
Straight from the Fee Study packet:
A fee is NOT a tax! Fees are a form of tax relief. You need to know how to answer,
“Why should I have to pay fees, since I’m a taxpayer?”
So, if garbage bucket charges are going to be a new fee – under the theory of it’s a fee of service – that should lower everybody’s taxes!
Also from the packet:
Match the cost of a service to those who benefit from it,
relieving taxpayers of the funding burden
When the garbage fee is raised, what taxes are they going to “relieve taxpayers of the burden?”
Silly question. None.
That pesky Enterprise Fund still has to balance. It’s not about charging for services, it’s about collecting more money so the City doesn’t need to divert money from the piggy bank for actual essential services.
Your wallet is immaterial.
The work session starts at 5:00 and is scheduled to last only a half an hour. It will be sickening to watch the paid consultant justify “fee” increases so the Council and Hales don’t have to. Tired of Mayor Renner yet?
Maybe I should start calling him Taxing Tari!
At 5:30 one of their Secret meetings is scheduled (Executive Session). Personnel is on that agenda. Since the Council only has one employee, David Hales, expect another raise. Being completely unable to make a decision without hiring a consultant is grounds for getting HUGE bucks. In the real world employees are compensated for contributing to the success of the business. Government jobs pay more for failure.
I wonder is anybody will ask David why he failed to supervise the Coliseum Management?
Diane, Do we have recall possibilities in Bloomington?
Donnie Shields
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I don’t think so.
“Fees are for purchases of service that are essentially discretionary and of private benefit.”
The above statement is so ridiculous. So, indoor plumbing, public health and safety are considered “discretionary” in Bloomington? The city taxes amusement and utilities. I have to pay taxes to watch TV in a warm house.
This rate study does not include water and sewer. It seems to be for administrative services.
You called it, Diane–one item on the agenda last time–the calm before the storm. The bombs are beginning to drop
Heck, WHY not tax the Shakespeare festival tickets? OR a Sugar Creek Arts Festival STREET tax? Maybe a LABOR DAY parade tax-I’m sure THAT would go over well!! Or how about a Dumb Politician Tax (we’d ALL be RICH) . As for the garbage fee-that’s what it is-GARBAGE, as we use a SMALL “bin” and only put it out ONCE a month! Maybe we should get a REFUND on garbage fees, since we don’t put out as much??
I have information, from a good source, that David Sage had contractors remove his carpet and put it to the curb. Sage then called the city up and had the crews pick up the carpet. He had the contractors hide around the block so the city crews would not see that it was a contracted job. The man in charge of the budget tax force is scum.
Not a day goes by where Renner doesn’t take his tyrannical rule to the next level