More Philadelphia Asshattery
By Wyatt Earp | July 9, 2008
Courtesy of Mayor Michael Nutter, Democrat.
IT’S CALLED “pay as you throw.”
The Nutter administration is researching whether to charge residents for trash collection, according to city officials. Environmental experts say this would encourage recycling because there is typically no charge for collecting recyclable waste.
And the fees would help pay for trash collection and disposal, which currently costs the city $95 million a year, according to Deputy Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams.
But will Philadelphians balk at shelling out for something they’ve been getting free for years as taxpayers?
“There’ll be an uprising in the Northeast, I can tell you that,” said Mary Jane Hazell, president of the Somerton Civic Association. “I love Mayor Nutter. I think he’s a great guy. I just don’t think [this will work].”
As a resident of the Northeast, I can absolutely agree. Fight the power! Free Huey!
Seattle is home to the nation’s oldest pay-per-trash program, since the 1980s charging residents based on their amount of trash.
Residents pay by the size of their trash can or cans. For example, they pay $17.65 per month for a 32-gallon can or $35.30 for a 62-gallon can. If you put out an additional bag, you’re charged extra. (H/T - Philadelphia Daily News)
Yeah, this is a great idea. Let’s just charge for trash pickup now because we want to look good in the eyes of Al Frakkin’ Gore! Never mind that this city has never charged for trash pickup. This is a new era in Filthy-delphia, and we’re going to tax its residents back to the Stone Age!
And they wonder why people are fleeing the city in droves.
Topics: Philly |
July 9th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
People in Philly actually PAY for something… Nah, that would be too good to be true… Besides, the union would just jack up their salaries even higher- Isn’t it true garbage…er sanitation workers have a higher starting salary than cops and firemen in Philly? /snark off
July 9th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
There is a fee for trash pick-up here. Which is why we don’t bother. Between composting (or rather the chickens feasting on the compost) recycling, and reusing, we have very little trash. The bit we do have we bring to my SIL and it is picked up with her trash for free. The cost would be $15.00 a month no matter how much or how little we have. I have better things to spend $15.00 on. Like chocolate.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
*Obvious Question Alert!*
Mayor Nutbag, what’s to stop people from just taking their trash and putting it at their neighbors’ trash can or somewhere down the street?
BTW, there’s no such thing as “free” trash pick-up, even in Filthydelphia. The citizens of Filthydelphia are, and have been, paying for it through taxes, whether they know it or not. (How the f*ck else has the city been paying for it for all these years, if not through taxes?)
Here in the county that I live in in FL, the solid waste
feetax is clearly delineated on our property tax bills. (As is every other service provided by the gubmint.) Everyone pays for trash pick-up, no matter if they own the property or not. (Renters pay for it through their rental fees to the owner.) Even so, you’d never know that each and every household in the county has trash pick-up, with all of the the shi’ite that’s dumped on the sides of the roads and in the woods. Lots of people are just fuggin’ pigs. (Apologies to pigs everywhere.)July 9th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Best comment I have seen was yeah sure they can’t get 30% of the residents to pay their water bills, gas bills or their real estate taxes.
Seriously I had some hope that Nutter would be different but yesterday he appoints nothing but gays and minorities to the Human Relations Commission and now this tax on trash. Nutter is no different than Street, etc.
Run for your lives if you still live in Philly.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Private trash collection in my part of PA, at least there’s some competition. You really oughta move out of that Marxist hellhole.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
$2,500 a year in taxes and they can’t even plow the street two or three times a year when it really snows. There are probably three cops on duty in my district on any given shift. Now I have to pay for my trash to be picked up? I CAN’T WAIT TILL I RETIRE! I’M OUTTA HERE AND I DON’T CARE IF THE WIFE AND KIDS COME ALONG!
July 9th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
I know that in the City of Erie, trash collection and sewer are on the same bill.
Shit’s shit, I guess.
Recyclables have to be separated, but I think the collection of those is included in that fee. But don’t you dare take anyone’s plastic bottles from outside the city! NO!
And Erie is run by Democrats, and the last time I knew was pretty much in the red financially.
It all went to the same place, and Waste Management charged us county folks by making us pay $10 (and it’s gone up since I moved out) per garbage bag. They’d only pick up your trash if it was in their bags.
It’s a racket, I tell ya.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
That sucks.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
In theory, it’s a very good idea.
Here in the ‘burbs, I pay $32.50 a month, but I get PAID to recycle and they pick up trash twice a week (I take care of ma kids!). When I first moved into this township, I thought it was crap, but there’s 3 companies that fight for our business and competition has kept the costs the same for 4 years now.
Now, in Philly, there’s no chance it would work. I remember when all of the trash trucks would be lined up near LaBrum middle school until it was dark before picking up the trash just so they’d get their overtime.
Plus, AJ makes an awesome point…half of the city doesn’t pay the bills they have now. Good luck with that.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Old NFO - NO . . . the taxpayers would pay for it. (Mostly people in the Northeast.) The rest of the city? They’ll just throw their trash out the window, along the sides of the road, or in a business trash dumpster.
Kim - Yeah, chocolate rules.
B.C. - This tool will charge for trash pickup, then raise taxes as well. Typical Democrat shenanigans.
AJ - And the HRC was made up of a lot of his friends and cronies. But he represents “change,” right?
DPU - Unfortunately, I am chained to the city because city employees must live inside the city limits. That’s how they get ya!
Captain - We live in the Northeast - mostly white, mostly taxpayers - why should we get a snow plow?
GroovyVic - Your Democrat politicians at work. But don’t worry, Barack Obama will change all of that. HE won’t raise taxes!
RT - It certainly does not rock!
Randal - And we’ll get no competition, or if we did, it would be from Nutter’s cronies. This guy truly is the second coming of John Street.
July 10th, 2008 at 6:06 am
Trash pickup is “free” in some cities?
I got so distracted by that I kinda missed the rest. I’ve only ever lived where you haul it to the dump site yourself, or pay for trash collection. Not taxes, but the “trash bill” that comes every month or three.
Weird. I am boggled by this.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Will they be adjusting our taxes if this new system goes into play? No, I didn’t think so. This is double dipping, paying twice for one service. My other question is how are they going to enforce this? Hire an additional guy with a clipboard to make notes on how many bags each residence tosses on trash day? If you want people to seriously recycle, how about collecting it once a week, instead of twice a month?
Here’s a better idea: like AJ Lynch suggested-make the deadbeats pay up on their gas, water and real estate taxes. Do away with the business privilege tax, so that people will actually want to start a business here, rather than take it to the suburbs or New Jersey. And if the city is serious about making money, fine the jerks who refuse to clear their sidewalks after a snow storm- they’d be rolling in dough just from the residents in Center City.
Okay, I’m done ranting now, must have been that second cup of coffee.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Shoot, it isn’t even free here in the armpit of OH. We have at least four companies that compete out here in the boons to pick up garbage (from those folks that don’t, you know, dump it at the end of my driveway - it does not pay to be rural); with fuel surcharges and the like I’m now paying almost $60/quarter for garbage pick-up.
Not bad, plus they supplied one of those neat-o wheelie Rubbermaid garbage cans.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:18 am
They started doing that down here this year. People are sending tea bags rather than the bill.
At least even the stupid people might start voting differently.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Actually, everywhere I’ve lived I’ve had to pay a basic fee for trash pickup.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Free trash pickup??? In a liberal metropolitan city??? Good God, be glad you’ve had it so good up to now! Someone at TaxCentral has been asleep for a loooong time in Filthadelphia.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Dorkelina - It’s technically free here, but we get screwed on the taxes. Philly has some of the highest taxes around.
Mrs. C - Exactly. Enforcement will be next to impossible, but you know they will keep an eye out on the taxpaying neighborhoods. Think we’ll see enforcement in North Philly? Doubt it.
GroovyVic - problem here is there will be no competition. We’ll still get the same lousy city service, but we’ll have to pay for it. Swell.
Admiral - Now that’s a great idea! Philly Tea Party, everyone!
Doghouse - Well don’t move here. The free trash pickup is not worth the rest of the nonsense.
Mike47 - No, they make it up in insane property taxes and the incredibly insane city wage tax. Trust me, we’re tax-adelphia.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Who does Nutter think he’s kidding. The people are already pissed off about some of the stuff we have to pay for now, and he wants us to pay for trash pick up. Hey, Michael, I’ll pay as soon as you and your friends in City Council pay for their trash pick up. Tweet tweet. Why am I not surprised!!!!
July 10th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Wyatt some further explanation is needed on this one:
In Philly we pay outrageous property taxes. Literally half of the city pays the bills for the other half who are deadbeats. Our taxes go into the “General Fund” that’s supposed to pay the bills to run the city. But so much of the money is mishandled, stolen, wasted, or spent on liberal dead end social programs that the city constantly operates in a fiscal crisis. This necessitates the need for new “Fees” to pay for basic services already supposed to be covered in our taxes.
The money needed to pay for police, fire, ems, streets, sanitation, and utility infrastructure is completely wasted and the city crumbles.
For example: the electricity in my office is so messed up that the circuit keeps tripping and shutting down everything including my computer. That’s why this is the second time I’m writing this. (I was interrupted by a call for a car accident once, as well). But we can’t get the electricians to fix it the first time. They told us they would be back. It’s the same old story.
Last one out take down the flag. (If it’s still flying.)
July 11th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Leoni2 - City Council will pay for this just as soon as Nutter and Street do. The guy is worse than Street, in my opinion, because Street was honest in the fact that he was a scumbag.
Captain - Well said.