Our city garbage bills also include a five dollar per month “ENVIRONMENTAL FEE”.
According to this city presentation the fee is to “help cover the costs of cleaning illegally dumped materials, compliance with environmental laws, pick-up of dead animals, alley cleanups, graffiti removal, median maintenance, and neighborhood cleanups”:
Then why?
…on the same city internal audit report do they show that 10.8 % of the monies collected went to the fire department, 10.71 % went to the city general fund and downtown management district, and 5.58% went toward paying for additional building inspectors?
Let’s not forget that the city also gets a portion of the sales tax that they charge on the environmental fee.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Good questions, all. I wish I knew. I do know that the chickenshit City recently passed along to the PSB what for years had been the City’s responsibility, namely storm water control. Not that many years ago, the City’s general fund paid for this, but now that, too, has been added to our Water bill. We are, indeed, being screwed over, as we pay for services many times over. But, there is still a “need” for a downtown arena?!
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The “crazy” in me predicts four things. 1) there will be a downtown arena because 17% of the registered voters of this city voted in favor of the bond issue and the REIT investors’ “education campaign” mentioned the downtown arena even though the actual proposition voted on did not. 2) Mountain Star will offer to fill it with a soccer team. 3) The failure of our local leaders to attract companies that actually can employ folks in good paying, promotable jobs that do not involve tax dollars will result in a continued drain on the small amount of disposable income still available in our population. 4) Ballpark ticket sales will drop if soccer ticket sales go up and that will result in city leaders looking for even more creative ways to make taxpayers pay for their bad (donor-driven) decisions.
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