raising taxes is all these lunkheads can think of. more fees. more fees.

Not one more tax or fee until everything not necessary is cut from the budget!

OMG is all I can say.

Cary Africk

I should clarify one statement. I never meant to discontinue trash pickup, save the town lots of money, and have people incur an additional charge and the trouble of arranging for their own trash pickup. Yes, ROC, that would be an additional "tax" and a terrible idea.

I want to see numbers from a company that could run our trash pickup, our bulky waste pickup, and our recycling pickup.

Pay as you throw may have attractions in concept, but I do think it would INCREASE cost to the Township in terms of people to administer the program.

Set me Fried!

what else does "We should 'consider requiring residents to do their own contracting for these services,'" mean Cary? Did you say that?

Fried: "In general I don't think we should be charging people for a basic service like trash removal ... but pay as you throw can be effective when it gives incentives for good behavior," he said."

The mayor is still kore concerned with reforming our "bad behavior" than in prudent fiscal management of the township. He's on a crusade and he doesn't care what it costs.

all new trash trucks? likely to be 400,000 each . as ell as buying every household the specialized heavy duty trash cans the automated trucks require.

I'll bet nothing is saved for a decade or more.

what will it take ? we have a budget problem NOW Mayor Fried. You can't pay the bills NOW. When you are out of a job and money is tight it IS NOT the time to buy new energy star windows for your house.

Before we implement pay as you throw, can we first work on changing the contract of the sanitation workers where they are not required to work an 8-hour day, rather their work day ends when their route is complete. It's no wonder Hartnett went to a twice per week pick up schedule. He was much more of a friend to the municipal worker than he was to the Montclair taxpayer. This was evidenced at the infamous 'snake oil' council meeting last year.

So once again, rather than going after the 'real' issues, Fried plans to charge us a sin tax if we choose not to follow his religious belief of environmental sustainability over practicality.

I hereby officially retract the statement "We should consider requiring residents to do their own contracting for these services." Note to Al Gore: please update the internet to reflect these changes.

Signed,

Cary

Did you walk it back and change your mind? Or did it mean something else?

Truthfully, and I am always truthful with you, ROC, my typing was going faster than my brain. I had been told where other towns let their people contract for their own trash, i.e. they made arrangements on their own. But then I thought better about it and thought all it would mean in Montclair is that we'd get BOTH high taxes and the "opportunity" of paying for our own trash pickup which would be a double whammy in that we'd now be paying yet another tax that was non-taxable.

But I was also suggesting, at this time, that we institute a "bulky waster by appointment" service where residents would pay to have EXCESS bulky waste picked up by the town. Since there are already outside services doing this, at VERY HIGH COSTS TO RESIDENTS, I figured the Town could offer this service at a "cut rate" price perhaps using some of the trash workers who now go home after their route. See? Saves everyone money! Of course, this being Montclair, I was immediately criticized as suggesting a program that only the "wealthy" would take advantage of because, apparently, the amount of junk you turn out that has to be removed is correlated with your income. As I said, "only in Montclair."

Now, satisfied ROC? I've divulged my innermost secrets to you and now you know I'm really a good guy. As a matter of fact I've been trying to work on the budget for 2011 today but have been stymied because it's a furlough day. Mind you the people I need info from aren't union, but that's another story.

Interesting property tax stat (even though it's from 2007)

http://www.starledger.com/str/indexpage/taxes/rank/default3.asp?frmcode=7

Enter towns with populations between 30,000 and 50,000 (Montclair is a hair under 40K).

Almost looks as bad as the Yankees payroll compared to the rest of the league. Looking at the increase in 2008, 2009 and 2010. I imagine we've created more disparity.

This seems quite surreal to me. Incentives for good behavior? Some households have one person. Some have 3. Some have 10. The amount of trash generated is as much a function of how many people comprise a household and how much time they spend at home. With two adults working long hours and many weekends away, my household generates very little. Even though I would benefit, I would be strongly opposed to any plan that penalizes people with yet an additional tax. It would be the equivalent of charging families additional money for each additional child in school. Rather than be concerned with incentivizing behavior, buying nice new shiny trucks that would save us money in 20 years and finding ways to get people to pay even more for basic services the town council should focus on how to prevent another tax hike. It will take several years of zero increases to make up for the past few years of fiscal recklessness. Do citizens need to show up at council meetings with torches and pitchforks in order to get our elected officials to balance the town's budget?