PEORIA -- City of Peoria's manager Patrick Urich heard an earful on Jan, 6 when he spoke to the monthly meeting of the Peoria Democratic Women. Nobody likes the garbage tax/fee and the issues that come with it.
Garbage pickup in Peoria used to be included in the property taxes, with no extra fees. That meant people in small houses paid less for this city service.
Then a $6 a month fee was instituted. Mayor Jim Ardis was elected on a promise to get rid of it, but he didn't. Instead, after he got reelected, the fee recently was doubled to $12 a month, which includes a free garbage toter that apparently must be used to dispose of all household trash. The fee began Jan. 1.
People are mad. "This is a Republican flat tax," I announced, and not based on trash disgarded or ability to pay. The elderly widow living alone in a small house pays the same as the large family living in a mansion.
Urich replied that it's based on the cost of pickup, which is the same for all households. The truck rolls down the street whether the resident puts out trash or not, he said, or is spending the winter in Florida.
But isn't there also a cost associated with the amount of trash taken to the landfill? Yes, there is. He didn't mention that.
With this logic, all police and fire calls ought to charge those who summon help. Oops, let's hope they don't think of that extreme libertarian idea.
Others at the meeting complained about the toters, with some saying they have nowhere to store them, or no way to push them to the street or alley for pickup.
My neighbor has complained of now having useless garbage cans, and wonders what's to be done with those.
I rent a toter from the city, and am stuck with paying the rental on top of the extra $6 fee until the free toters are available, in a few months. Sure it's very little money but... bad public policy.
Urich said the same amount of money would be raised by a 24 cent per $100 property tax on assessed valuation.
OK -- let's do the math. A $100,000 house, assessed for tax purposes at $30,000 means a $72 a year tax increase at that rate. But a $12 per month fee/flat tax is $144. So the poor get screwed again by the city. Bad policy.
Peoria has little going for it -- bad schools, crime that can happen anywhere. Now a $144 a year garbage fee. Next year it will be $13.
Meanwhile Urich explained that the city gets 25 percent of its income now from sales taxes, only 19 percent from property taxes. So has anyone considered that its households are now $144 a year poorer? That's $2.9 million. Sales tax revenue could drop further.
Then there are the city layoffs and retirements -- again cutting purchasing power.
But here's an interesting tidbit: Urich said one financial reform is to switch city retirees to Medicare, with the city providing only a supplemental plan. That's amazing! Why hasn't this been done years ago? Lots of wasted local tax money there -- I shudder to think how much!
Meanwhile, Urich said he squeezed city trash contractor Peoria Disposal Co. to cut back its $5.4 million contract to 2 percent increase a year, down from 3.6 percent. That saved "about $1 million," he said. Shared sacrifice, I guess.
The trash fee/tax provides little incentive to recycle, and few were interested anyway. Urich said the city recently offered free recycle toters to residents, and was prepared to give out 1,000. Only 800 took them. Those of us who paid a $50 deposit before that offer came down are just out of luck, though it is a deposit. If we ever sell our house and move, we can get that back, presumably. Again bad policy.
Other nuggets from Urich:
- The Hotel Pere Marquette closed for remodeling at the same time the new and controversial city-subsidized Marriott is being built, a practice not common in hotel management. Usually hotels stay open when remodeling occurs. But in this instance, the developer was afraid the hotel would miss two years of March Madness visitors instead of one if the hotel stayed open, he said. That makes little sense, but even if true, over 170 events that had been scheduled there had to be cancelled, with revenue lost and people inconvenienced.
Urich listed the improvements he made to the contract with the developer, which sounded good. It hasn't closed yet but is supposed to close very soon, he said. It's behind schedule.
- The city is creating a model lease for landlords, which might be a positive development unless it accelerates moving, a huge problem for the huge mobility rate (kids changing schools when they move) in Peoria School District 150.
The city has crime problems because the Peoria Housing Authority kicks out anyone with a criminal record. These people have to live somewhere, so they rent in the older neighborhoods, with predictable results. That didn't come up, however.
Urich is a bright, personable guy, and likely knows better than creating something like the garbage tax/fee, but he's employed by the clueless Republicans elected to the city council.
Some of his other financial reforms -- especially the Medicare situation -- make sense.
He mentioned the schools but admitted he's never heard of Diane Ravitch's great book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, which advocates tested methods of improving schools, and does not recommend closing them because that destroys neighborhoods.
Urich said more might be closed in Peoria and some demolished.
He likes the Quest charter school, apparently unaware of its dubious associations. (See story below.)
Goodbye neighborhood schools, hello chaos.
-- Elaine Hopkins
Comments