As previously reported, the City of Lake Worth will be raising the Solid Waste Assessment to $287.76, a raise of $42 and going up 10% on all commercial accounts. There was some sort of explanation given by Joe Kroll that the County was charging us more or something but no facts or figures were given. Blindly, the Commission accepted this. It's almost like his boss came to him and said, "Hey Joe, we must raise revenue...got any great ideas?" If you're going to raise a fee/tax, give us the documentation to prove the case. The Commission should be asking for this on all matters and not taking the word of Staff. The City is far from transparent.
On page 8A of today's Palm Beach Post, Palm Springs is advertising its special assessment for Solid Waste and re-cycling collection services: Single family homes, $144; Multi-Family homes, $90 and mobile homes, $90.
Do they not use the same dump as Lake Worth? Granted, their population is 1/3rd the size of Lake Worth but dumping is dumping. Their populous is more affluent and less are poor. Perhaps it is because we dump more than they and the County charges us more? If that is the case, let's reduce the pick-ups to one per week at least during the Summer and assess the situation after the snowbirds arrive. What ever is the problem?
We have the highest electric commercial rates in the State of Florida. Our taxes are high and the City keeps raising fees. Perhaps the only problem is Palm Beach County that has a Napolean complex that wants to take over our city by charging us unfair fees such as the fire rescue supplement?
The biggest joke of all though, is that we are told none of these fees are a tax but only assessments.
Read the Editorial in today's Palm Beach Post, Just call it a tax increase.
12 comments:
Your absolutely right on this. Our household composts and since we put out trash every six weeks or so they must have a record of that. (as well as the empty snowbird dwellings). Most everything is computerized. They ought to take this into consideration. The ones using the dumpsters most would be flippers and the high turn over rental properties. I got my composter from Joe.
The mayor should write a grant to cover the cost of waste management.
Please don't run for office again in this city anonymous at 1pm.
Lynn. I'm serious. The mayor said grants will help the city. She need to step up.
Her job is that of Mayor, not grant writer. The City is in the process of hiring a grant writer. They already have one but apparently it is not enough. I doubt that we can get federal aid for garbage collection. In fact with the state of affairs now in our country, stimulus money will be halted.
Well the bcme and bce is going to have to make up the 3 million dollar difference for the beach somehow, this should do the trick.
Sounds like he might just run again. Get ready for round 2!!
One of Waterman's main campaign positions was that she was a grant writer and could and would help the city by writing grants that apparently no-one else could.
How could this be forgotten already?
I believe it was also pointed out that as Mayor, she would not be responsible for writing grants, but that she could shed light on what stones to turn to find them and direct staff to apply.
We were just recently denied a grant for the struggling Park of Commerce. We did not meet the criteria. A lot of effort and time go into applying for these grants and therefore waste when we don't get it.
Hopefully she can help in this regard. After all, it is OUR OWN MONEY we are applying for.
It is not that LW did not meet the criteria. Lake Worth could not get the necessary easements from the owners in the Park of Commerce to go forward.
As the CFO for the Solid Waste Authority and a resident of Lake Worth I'd be interested to know what Mr. Kroll said about SWA being responsible for an increase in the residential collection costs in Lake Worth. The SWA does not charge any fees for collection in any city and collects its disposal fees directly from the residents through the county tax bill. The tip fee paid to SWA by commercial customers will not change. The only rate change that might effect Lake Worth is the governmental rate for waste generated at city owned properties increasing from $150/ton to $160 but that would not impact residential collection costs at all. There may be a need for a residential collection rate increase but it's not the SWA.
"charlie"
The way I blogged it was rather fuzzy as I did not recall his exact explanation. This has to do with Lake Worth Solid Waste and not the SWA charged by PB County. LW gets 2 charges on their non-advalorem tax bill.
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