INDIAN TRAIL BUDGET AND TAXES
May 5th and 6th marked the first time that the Indian Trail town council seemingly spoke at length about the town budget and actually welcomed citizens input. Not sure why it hadn't been done in the past, but it was a process that was long overdue. Judging by what I saw and heard on May 5th, the citizens of Indian Trail have a rude awakening waiting for them. Due to the fiscal strategy of the past, the bills are coming due in the present and future. What was a yearly expectation of 400,000 to 500,000 dollar budget surpluses have now changed in to a need for tax increases. I could sit here and tell you it was the fault of the previous town manager and previous councils for not monitoring more closely the budget, and I would be right. The blame also lies with the citizens of the town for a lot of the same reasons. No public involvement. In the past, it was impossible to get public input due to the manager and council. Now given the opportunity to participate there was a disappointing turnout at the meetings from the public. The garbage collection fiasco alone should generate public outcry since its costing the town more and more money with every additional house brought into the fold. It will be interesting to see what the town has come up with in order to stem the outflow of your tax dollars. If you are interested, you need to visit the town and get a copy of the budget and the tax increases as soon as they become available. Get involved.
posted by Lee Godwin at
11:39 AM
2 Comments:
It is my understanding that right before the last election of town council members, our town council decided to enter into a contract with Action Garbage Service thjat is to last a couple of years...three I believe. Anyway, my question is this; why in the world would we sign a contract that is going to end up costing us more money than we currently have alloted for this service? Did we even look at any other companies? I would say that competition is a great thing and, in this case, may have helped us to get our costs in line. Just a thought.
Apparently you are correct in that they extended the contract of Action garbage. A fact that I missed if stated in open session or was never stated. Nevertheless, it does seem odd that this was done presumeably without enquiring about competitive rates. From information I have found, Action garbage provides a very good service for the money. No question they are very professional. The others, I have heard things about that were not favorable and so it may have been a good thing. The town even with a new provider would have never allotted enough for the service. The service provided by the town was going to cost money no matter who provided it. It has been growing like quicksand for years due to the town providing the service. An increase of some sort is needed to keep from driving the town deeper into the hole. Stay tuned for such increases.
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