Comments on The Overland Examiner: Council Workshop Meeting - Oct. 29th, 2007

Abuser I understand your frustration, howev...

2007-10-31T20:56:00.000-05:00

Abuser I understand your frustration, however here's two things to consider:

1> Assuming they apply ( and if they get that much aid I imagine they are rather adept at such applications), the people you referenced who receive 45,000.00 a year tax-free would get a subsidy if we go with Councilperson O'Connell's plan as income tax returns are likely the only document we could use to verify income.

2>The user fee proposal, while it would reduce their cost of trash service would also reduce your's, mine and everyone else's cost of the service.

It seems to me, if we have to choose between one or the other, the the user fee option is far more fair, though I doubt it can pass. I also think it's likely that the reduction in cost we'd see will be very close to what people would get under O'Connell's proposal as the city is likely to receive a fairly high number of applications.

SuzyJax 2 questions:

Being a user fee, would it be subject to the same super majority requirements as bonds are?

Do you know if someone paid all their taxes but the user fee, and they did that for several years, would they be risking a lean or tax sale of the property as they would be if they did the same with say the school portion of their tax bill?

Also, thanks for the comments on the player in the earlier article. I agree the time stamp issue is a problem, though there might be a workaround for that if I can find an alternate player at that host.

The slider is a problem in the beginning, but there is a possible work around. If you hit play, then pause, the video will continue to load in the background. Doing that say when you first check out an article, and then go back to playing after reading one of my voluminous (of late) tomes should have loaded the video enough to scroll though most of it. At least, that's my understanding of how it works.

Herman said you could NOT write off this amount. ...

2007-10-31T18:20:00.000-05:00

Herman said you could NOT write off this amount. I apologize if that was not clear.

You are right about the lack of support for Fire and School. The only thing with this is that by passing, it would actually lower the bills. And there would be no way to escape it.

If you don't pay your Real Estate property taxes for 3-years, the county can/will auction off your property.
I am not sure if they do anything with cars/pers property. However, you do need a receipt to get new plates.

The idea of the attition the fee to the Real Esta...

2007-10-31T18:00:00.000-05:00

The idea of the attition the fee to the Real Estate Taxes seem frought with problems in my opinion. Overland is notorious for not support tax increase in almost any shape or form. The CCFPSD receives little or no support for their porjects.

Besides on my street alone there is a family getting $45,000 tax free, through SSI, Veteran Disabiltiy Benefits, Pension incomes and god knows what else. Their medical is paid for by the VA, and medicade and medicare. They have DISH TV with all the extra channels, High Speed DSL, several computers. Yet they can not pay for theitrash pickup. They own 13 acres in Sullivan Mo. Are 3 years behind in Real Estate Taxes and Personal Property Taxes, haven't yet paid the sales tax on their vehicles yet they complain. they tried to get help from a Church but were laughed out their door.

Why should I and the rest of the taxpayers in Overland subsidization their lack or management.

Councilman O'Connel idea was dead on, let then show they can't afford it. This same family hasn't filed a tax return in over 10 years citing poverty.

Their net is only slight lower that what my family makes, I pay for my trash and so does everyone else on this street. We are not in W3 or W4 were in 1. We're not rich but we survive.

I've filed taxes for over 40 years and never been able to use my trash on an itemized tax return. Herman is living in the world of Ladue or Town in Country.

This issue REQUIRES some tough decisions made on the true need of the residents. There may be some very well in need, but their not around me.

But I did get a kick out of Owensby, He is humping Fetech?

Back to this service fee, I really don't understan...

2007-10-31T15:47:00.000-05:00

Back to this service fee, I really don't understand Owensby's lack of support. "His residents" would actually be paying less through this proposal. And, it would be taken out of the mortgage payment for the large percentage of us.
I saw it as a win-win, but don't see much chance of this at the polls if you can't even get your council members to support the idea.
Of course, Owensby will only be happy once the city is paying 100% of the bill and will not settle for anything less (and will not propose any alternatives).

During the break, I asked Bob Herman a few questio...

2007-10-31T15:44:00.000-05:00

During the break, I asked Bob Herman a few questions about his proposal.
I was very interested because I thought why not do something similar back when we were first contemplating resident-paid trash.

1) It is a user-fee, not a tax. Thus, Bob said it was not tax deductible for those that itemized.

2) Since it is a user-fee and not based on a rate/assessment percentage, the city would be able to adjust the amount based on a) the cost of trash service that year b) the amount of that cost the city would pay.
It would then be evenly divided among each parcel of land, regardless of its value.

The sewer lateral fee works similarly. Everyone currently pays $28/year, regardless of their property's value.