Local: Taxpayers getting billed for ‘growth’

The City of Peoria says it cannot possibly cope with snow removal unless it spends a ton of money on new staff and equipment. C.J. says:

It should come as no surprise that more staff is necessary to handle public works needs in a city that continues to increase in size (and continues to add miles of inefficient curvilinear streets). There’s an annexation request on the city council agenda nearly every week, and I have yet to see one defeated. As the city continues to grow, expect other departments to request an increase in staff and equipment as well.

Perhaps the next Six Sigma project could be a process for evaluating annexation requests on a cost-revenue basis. The city currently does no such evaluation, choosing to look only at the potential revenues (increased tax base) and ignore the additional public works and public safety costs.

Constant annexation to the north drives up costs to taxpayers in other ways. Didn’t the City Council just agree to spend $28 million on library renovation and construction — much of which is going to build a brand-spanking new library near the city’s northernmost limits. The argument made at the time was that the people who live up there pay taxes and they need to have services in their neighborhoods, too.

My two cents: At least snow removal is an essential city service. Personally, I don’t think having a library within five minutes driving distance is essential. But the folks who do think it is essential are a bigger crowd than those who don’t, so their argument carried the day.

But yes, I agree with C.J. on this point.  Too bad he convinced himself to ignore this argument back during the library debate.