As the city of Auburn debates a 2005-06 budget that would require an 8.9-percent tax increase, we would encourage council to consider the hundreds of thousands of dollars already available to the city's general fund.
Start with the city's unpaid parking tickets.
We've watched for years as parking ticket scofflaws rang up unpaid tickets at the city's expense - it topped $160,000 this year - and yet council had done nothing to effectively go after these delinquents. They dangled amnesty carrots, threatened action, but the scofflaws continued to thumb their noses at Auburn.
It had become a laughable rite of spring - city council would annually express its frustration over the unpaid tickets - until last month when councilors finally voted to hire a collection agency to go after their money, which is actually the taxpayer's money.
In addition, the city has stood by while the landfill's delinquency reached $700,000.
And, to compound these outstanding figures, the city of Auburn is also owed more than $1 million in back taxes.
The city of Auburn needs to curb its insatiable drive to generate more revenue off the backs of its law-abiding citizens and go after those who are breaking the law.
The city couldn't figure out how to target the abusers of the two-hour free parking system downtown - it blamed software, time and resources - and so it threw the baby out with the bath water.
No more free parking for anyone, and the city resuscitated an old revenue stream.
The city hasn't figured out how to target the abusers of its municipal trash collection, and so it continues to try and slap a trash tax on all residents, which would unfairly target many families and senior citizens.
After two failed attempts, city officials have now realized that they should enforce the existing trash laws, which specifically targets the city's abusers.
If city officials put as much energy into going after bad debt and persistent violators as they do in dreaming up new avenues into their citizen's pocketbooks, perhaps council wouldn't be staring at an 8.9-percent tax increase.
We've watched for years as parking ticket scofflaws rang up unpaid tickets at the city's expense - it topped $160,000 this year - and yet council had done nothing to effectively go after these delinquents. They dangled amnesty carrots, threatened action, but the scofflaws continued to thumb their noses at Auburn.
It had become a laughable rite of spring - city council would annually express its frustration over the unpaid tickets - until last month when councilors finally voted to hire a collection agency to go after their money, which is actually the taxpayer's money.
In addition, the city has stood by while the landfill's delinquency reached $700,000.
And, to compound these outstanding figures, the city of Auburn is also owed more than $1 million in back taxes.
The city of Auburn needs to curb its insatiable drive to generate more revenue off the backs of its law-abiding citizens and go after those who are breaking the law.
The city couldn't figure out how to target the abusers of the two-hour free parking system downtown - it blamed software, time and resources - and so it threw the baby out with the bath water.
No more free parking for anyone, and the city resuscitated an old revenue stream.
The city hasn't figured out how to target the abusers of its municipal trash collection, and so it continues to try and slap a trash tax on all residents, which would unfairly target many families and senior citizens.
After two failed attempts, city officials have now realized that they should enforce the existing trash laws, which specifically targets the city's abusers.
If city officials put as much energy into going after bad debt and persistent violators as they do in dreaming up new avenues into their citizen's pocketbooks, perhaps council wouldn't be staring at an 8.9-percent tax increase.
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