Dear Fellow Memphian:
We have corresponded in the past about city issues. The city is facing a severe budgetary problem, and I need your input.
The mayor’s budget proposed 125 layoffs and a 4.6% pay cut for all city employees. Even with these cuts, the budget is still $60 million short of being balanced.
The mayor proposes to fill this gap with one-time financial arrangements (proceeds from refinancing debt, selling tax receivables, and borrowing money to be repaid by increased income from parking meters). These measures do not solve our problems in future years; if passed, we will be faced with the same $60 million problem next year.
There have been many solutions offered by different council members, and I want your thoughts on the following:
1. Garbage Collection — Would you rather:
A. End the city’s garbage collection and contract with private companies to collect the garbage throughout Memphis. This will save $20 million.
B. End the city’s garbage collection and implement “managed competition”, where the city garbage workers form their own company and bid on the city’s garbage collection against private companies. This is being successfully done in Indianapolis. This will save $5 million next year and $15 million per year thereafter.
C. Maintain the current city garbage collection service.
2. Car Inspection — The emissions testing is required by federal law, and the maintenance or safety testing is required by city law. Would you rather:
A. End the city run car inspections and allow private repair shops to conduct the inspections. This will free up $2.5 million in city funding to fund other city services and help avoid a tax increase, but it will cost each car owner approximately $7 per year, which would be paid to the repair shop for the inspection.
B. Maintain the current city run car inspection system.
3. Firefighters — With which do you agree:
A. The Director of the Fire Department wants to reduce the number of firefighters by 111 through attrition and save $9 million. He states that we have the most fire stations and engines per person than any city in the country and that these reductions will not affect safety.
B. The Firefighters Union points out that, when measured by area, Memphis is the 10th largest city in the country and we rank 26th in the number of stations per square mile and 7th in the number of engines and that response time to a fire is better measured by mile and not population. They state that response time will be slower and that even a minute or two delay can be a problem when responding to fires.
4. Traffic Court Costs and Fines — For moving and non-moving traffic violations, would you rather:
A. Increase the court costs from $61 to $135 and/or increase the fines from $20 to $80.
B. Maintain the current levels of costs and fines.
5. Speed Monitoring Devices — Similar to red light cameras, would you rather:
A. Install devices to monitor speed at certain intersections and cite violators through citations in the mail. It is claimed to increase safety at intersections. This will result in increased revenue of $1.7 million.
B. Not install these devices.
Thanks, Jim Strickland
Garbage ?
Heck, install dumpsters in locations and make people dispose of their own crap, and pickup the dumpsters twice a week …lol
Cer Inspection ?
Get rid of the law, it’s bs anyway. It’s a scam
Firefighters ?
Fire (no pun intended) 30% of them. Force early retirement of another 10%. Consolidate Police and Deputies…fire the excess capacity.
Traffic fines, etc ?
Yep, jack the fines jack the court costs. Install tolls for the crosstown, and the Morris parkway…lol
Jack up the price for buses too…jack up the gas taxes for the city too……also, let’s jack up the sales tax as well…..jack up the bed tax….jack up the liquor tax….jack up the cigarette tax……jack up the tax on shitty food like fried chikkken, frenchfries, nasty burgers and pass a BBQ-smoke tax (big money)…..jack up the entertainment tax for Univ of Memphis basketball, jack it up for the redbird and the use for the stadiums, fairground, …..jack up use taxes for the ZOO, Shelby Farms, install toll booths for the use of the trails…..develop a bike licensing program…charge fees for registration of all bikes used on public roads…….then jack up the fines if the bike riders fail to register their bikes and display their tags……increase and jack up fees for motorcylce registrations…….jack up user fees for heavy equipment……jack up fees and user fees for heavy trucks coming in from Mississippi……….jack up library fees and fines…….jack up the size of class sizes and fire all of the excess incompetent teachers and fire 1/3 of the adminstrators and counselors……
Sell the excess city-owned cars and trucks…..stop paying for gasoline over a set amount for city-owned cars driven by ‘executives’..
Speed Monitoring Devices ??
you’re kidding me right? don’t waste that money….tell the police to start righting idiots more tickets….jack them up…..take their goddam cellphones away from these idiots, and give them quotas for tickets to write every month…….fire the ones who can’t ‘produce’……..tell them to stop ignoring stupid bastards violating the law right in front of them each and every day…..eliminate the stupid officers from taking city cars home, using the city’s gas, tires and oil………..stop ordering goddam SUV’s every year…..sell some of the fleet of fast-azz Dodge Chargers and souped-up cruisers for basic community patrolling…..buy some cheapazz bikes….
Refinance any outstanding bond debt while the rates at the lowest in decades…..do a ‘bond refunding’ and reissuance to reduce long term interest costs..
Sell off physical assets that are underused or not used at all……buildings, halls, lots etc….jack up impound fees……jack up lease fees to occupants of city-owned property…
Jack up everything….jack it up in a goddam hurry.
Git’er dunn
1. A
2. A
3. A
4. A
5. B
1.B
2.A
3.B
4.A
5.B
Thanks, guys. We’ll forward your answers to the councilman.
1. A
2. A
3. A
4. A
5. A
Re 1-3, like you said, no “sacred cows.” Re 4-5, anything that can slow down the crazy driving that we see every single day on every single street in Memphis has my vote.
C
B
A
A
B
I know this is too late, but how could anyone be voting for increasing traffic court costs, traffic fines or installing speed monitoring devices. Traffic violations should never have reached the point of being a revenue stream. There’s too much incentive for abuse, as we all know and experience much too frequently.
1) C – Have we not learned anything from the past 40 years in Memphis?!
2) A – Where I’m from in Gallatin, TN, this is how it has always been and it seemed to take a way a lot of hassle for all involved parties.
3) B – Do not put the public in harms’ way to save money. This would be a direct attack on the poor in our community, as demographically speaking low-income neighborhoods have the highest rates of fatal fires.
4) A – Charge however much you like for violations of the law. In fact, start actively ticketing jay-walkers for the $50 fine that is on the books and see how much revenue you can come up with in this city!
5) A – Again, it shouldn’t bother people if they are being lawful, and those who are not are such a great danger to others that at minimum there should be a financial consequence to their irresponsible actions.
Thank you!
1) B
2) A
3) A
4) B
5) B – Redlight cameras are a scam and only profit the private companies that install and run them!!!
Re: Britt, and anyone else listening in, on the issue of increasing traffic fines and installing automated cameras.
From an article on the abuse of civil forfeiture law I read recently. The same principles in effect with civil forfeiture law apply to other aspects of law enforcement as well, in which the agency or government profits directly from the enforcement of penalties. This paragraph is particularly apt,
“When public officials and their agencies have a direct financial stake in the outcome of their actions, courts must subject such actions to even closer scrutiny than is done now. Impartiality is one of the primary principles guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The clause guarantees the right to an impartial tribunal in criminal and civil cases. In such cases as Tumey v. Ohio, the Supreme Court held that an impermissible bias exists when the fact finder has a financial interest in the outcome. The Supreme Court has also held that the Due Process Clause could be violated even if an official does not receive a direct benefit from a particular scheme, so long as his department or agency could.”
We should not be creating incentives for government to raise revenue through the back door.
Moreover, laws must be just for the people to accept them. Traffic law is dangerously treading that line, as it becomes used more and more often as strictly a source of revenue for states and municipalities. We all know it’s primarily a tax. Most may not know this, but the origin of speed limits in the United States was not safety or revenue related, but was intended to force fuel efficiency on the nation. National speed limits were opposed by states, which prior to Congress’ national speed limit law had largely adhered to a reasonableness standard. Furthermore, speed limit law purported to intend to penalize only the fastest 15% of drivers. Does that sound the speed laws we are forced to adhere to today? Without speed limits, would 85% of drivers naturally poke down Poplar at 40 mph? More vigilant and strict traffic law enforcement is not a priority for the city. And it shouldn’t be used as a “trap” (yes, pun intended) to plug general budget deficits. What an incredible incentive to abuse traffic law enforcement to raise revenues.
If the city wants to entertain raising fees and fines on drivers, consider a gas tax, increased registration fees, or emissions fees, all proceeds from which would go to fund smart growth policies like better public transit, sustainable real estate development or green tech incubation and none of which would go into general city funds. Such a policy reminds of the ancient Roman tax collectors, the publicani, who profited from every cent they collected and so became notorious for beating the money out of those who couldn’t defend themselves.
1) B
2) A
3) B
4) A
5) B
1) B. If no significant savings are generated, then resort to option A.
2) A. This is the approach taken elsewhere which and it operates smoothly while also providing income to local repair and maintenance facilities.
3) A. The city’s commitment to fire protection should be commended but is beyond what is provided by peer cities throughout the southeast. We should adjust fire coverage to be in line with the average found in Nashville, Charlotte, Atlanta and Dallas.
4) A.
5) A.