Volusia County Council,
123 W. Indiana Ave.,
DeLand, FLA 32720.

Chairman and Members:

Some years ago, Mr. Grover Ashcraft said of the Council’s approval of the budget:

When you get home, dial 911 - you’ve just been robbed.

I mention this because the FY2001-02 budget, and surely the up-coming FY2002-03 budget as well, includes an outrageous garbage tax. It is listed separately from the ad valorem taxes, that the poor may be hit disproportionately hard: it is the equivalent of a fraction of a mill on a mansion, or several mills on a shack. The rich are make more generous campaign donations than the poor, and so must be favored.

In return for the garbage tax robbery, I can offer no evidence of actual service. Certainly I can offer no statement of the days on which garbage might be collected, nor evidence of collection. I also note the non-arrival of the second recycle bin, promised some months ago.

Last month, I did the County the kindness of collecting some of the trash from the trees along the right of way in front of my house, placing the same in a neat pile that it might be removed. This morning, as I augmented that uncollected pile, I noticed a fading tag tossed in the pile like so much fast-food litter.

Said tag accurately identifies the County as having Wasteful Management and says:

Name [illegible] Route # [illegible]
Address [illegible] [illegible]
Date [illegible]
Your materials has been left ...

Before the County took over, I had a private trash hauler. They charged about half what the County charges, came twice a week, and actually collected trash. Of course they had to - they worked for me: I paid them, and I could pick a different service if I wished.

Now, the County doesn’t actually provide any service. For over ten years, I haven’t even bothered setting out a garbage can here. The County contracts with a hauler to take the blame so that no bureaucrat need even hear a stern lecture.

The proof of this will be provided by the Department that is Solid Waste. We will hear the following:

1	The trash is unacceptable.	4	Talk to the hauler.
2	It’s not gift wrapped.	5	Not our fault.
3	The customer is to blame.

What we’ll never, ever hear is:

6	How fast can we make it right?
7	How can we avoid such screw-ups in the future?

I submit that this is the basic difference between the local private haulers whom I engaged and the out-of-town garbage monopoly supported by the County.

As I have above enumerated the responses of the Department that is Solid Waste, we need not wait for their answer. Instead, I urge the manager to direct that the hauler perform, and to thank all members of the public kind enough to help maintain the rights of way.

This letter should be included with the minutes of the budget hearing this week, wherein the County Council will rubber-stamp the budget including the garbage tax. I will be unable to attend.

Sincerely,



Tanner Andrews

PS: This letter is also available on the web:
http://www.payer.org/county/vc0204.html

Legal Mumbo-Jumbo: This material is a paid political advertisement provided by

from @(#)vc0204.txt 1.0 01-Sep-2002

proc with @(#)hmac.ta2 1.1a 01-Jun-2000