Fiscal Waste and Abuse

If you park your car 1 minute past the time limit, or 1 inch over the line, you can be fined. No mercy. No excuses. How is it, then, that a city can collect property tax, sales tax, income tax, parking fines, and sanitation fines and go a decade in some cases without reparing certain streets or sidewalks? How is it that property owners are fined for leaving cans on the curb on the wrong day, but the city is free to "miss" garbage pickups? The city can pay officers to drive around at 3am and look for expired registration stickers, but somehow they can't pay anyone to notice that there are 3 foot craters in the road.

This is because there is no competition and no accountability. The lowly bottle deposit law comes with a bill of rights. However, there is no set of obligations which residents can expect the city to fulfill. We are paying for certain services. If we were paying a private company for garbage collection or road repair, they would have to hustle, because we could take our business elsewhere. No competition plus no accountability guidelines equals fiscal waste and abuse. Money is taken from one neighborhood and is used elsewhere. The public should have the power to force the city to live up to its own obligations. For example, when roads go unrepaired past a deadline, or if trash pickups are "missed," the customers should be refunded in the form of tax rebates. We should have a right to take our business elsewhere.

City services should be no frills and utilitarian. Like the post office. The US Postal Service is a model government agency because it finances its whole operation through postage and products it sells. People who don't use it are not paying for it. The city should do the same. Extravagances like decorative floor tiles in the subway are a slap in the face to taxpayers who need to stretch their money. Money could be saved by the city in the same way you do so in your own household. Use less. Hold off on unnecessary purchases or renovations. Comparison shop.

The green movement has been presented to us as an inconvenience with a high price tag. This makes no sense. Using less and recycling saves money. People should be encouraged to visit for-cash recycling centers rather than fined for mixing trash incorrectly. Inform people about value and trash would disappear. Create a rate plan for garbage pickup based on number of containers, with a financial incentive to throw away less stuff.

Property ownership ends at the property line. Try parking your car on the sidewalk if you don't believe me. The city taxes us for the upkeep of public areas yet forces adjacent owners to deal with cleaning and repair. At the same time, it authorizes sanitation agents to peer into your driveway or front walk and throw $100 fines at you because there is an empty cup or newpaper on the ground. For the residents, the deal is bad..... all the responsibilities, yet none of the rights.

I would support measures to:
1. Take on the Parking Violations Bureau and analyze the fine structure for proportionality.
2. Impose greater accountability, block by block, house by house, for tax dollars, as concerns road maintenance, trash pickup, plowing, etc. though a system which forces property tax refunds for city agencies not following through on responsibilities.
3. Remove property owners and businesses from liability for sidewalks and gutters.
4. Permit opt out of portions of property tax for property owners wishing to dispose of trash, pave roads, or perform other services by private means.
5. Offer a price per weight or volume based trash service to encourage re-use and recycling.
6. Carefully evaluate waste in public agencies, such as unnecessary school renovations, or inappropriately purchased supplies, overindulgent bus shelters and decorated subway stations, lampposts and other wastes of tax dollars.