Paddock Lake residents to see increase in garbage collection fee

After a year in which they saw no increase, Paddock Lake residents will see a 20 cents or 1.2 percent increase in their monthly garbage and recycling collection fee in 2018.

The new fee was accepted by the Paddock Lake Village Board last week.

In 2016, the village’s garbage contractor, Johns Disposal of Whitewater, offered a five-year extension that would include no increase in the fifth year of the existing contract. That no increase year was 2017.

Going forward, the balance of the contract in effect until 2021 allows Johns to increase the base prices based on the consumer price index.

In Paddock Lake, residents directly pay their garbage disposal fee; it is not paid out of tax levy.

The monthly fee breaks down to $12.40 for garbage and $4.50 for recycling.

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6 Comments

  1. Interesting phenomena, taxes are says:

    In the good all days of ‘Ma Bell’ we used to pay one bill for all total services with the phone company. Remember that?

    And we used to pay one tax bill which covered sewer and water and garbage pick up and everything that local government controls and/or provides.

    Now we in Salem pay our sewer bill and stormwater runoff on a separate bill.

    Paddock Lake is paying their garbage on a separate bill.

    Seems like these separations are more for the local government to be able to say that they have a lower tax bill then it is to itemize out these types of services. There’s plenty of room on the tax bill paper to line item these separately and still allow them to be in the total bill for which then you can deduct on your income tax easily.

    Would be interesting to hear from an accountant if the sewer and garbage bill separated like they are are able to be deducted? And if so, then why are they separated in the first place.

  2. Phenomena - by design says:

    About the expression of lower taxes. Yes.
    About why? Garbage costs can change in mid-year and the municipalities cant recover the additional cost unless it is from the Almighty General Fund. Don’t touch that, it is the ‘profit’ from previous years’ efforts. So they create a Fee and can change it whenever to whatever.
    About sewer and storm water. Those are Utilities and fees. A trick name allowing the community to charge you, keeping it out of the real estate tax/mil rate and again, can change it whenever to whatever. Worse is that it is considered a Utility and the trick on us is that money can be collected under one reason but can be used n whatever way the municipality wishes to use it – even for totally unrelated efforts. And, remember, are considered fees, ie outside of the budget and also not deductible.
    If one looks at it carefully, sewer and storm water and garbage are all parcel specific, not volume specific. The elected officials have all participated in the sham on us by choosing to and continuing the classification of these fees – taxes.

    Sometimes, the garbage is collected via tax bills and some people add it to their whole real estate tax deduction but technically, the fee appears on the bill a service by county for the municipality but is not part of the real estate tax itself.

    State legislators could change this whole sham by forcing municipalities to include all these fees/charges to citizen in the budget. The end result would be fair expression of real estate taxes, fair accountability of tax revenue application and usage. The municipalities will revolt at this. It will tighten up a loophole that they like.

    Municipalities don’t like Funds -the other money collector in government. This is because the money in these funds must be used for the purpose they were collected. It cannot be diverted and in some cases must be used in specific large money projects, not in day to day operations. It is a nice protection for the citizen.

    If one is upset with this state of affairs, then remember how upset you are in April and be sure to vote in any primary because that is the event when there is more apt to be new contenders with your own viewpoints on need for change for those who need term limits. Any municipality can with a super majority vote of their board, change a fee or utility to a budgetary item.

    If voting isn’t enough for you, December brings with it the nomination paper event for running for office. Your local clerk will give you all the help you need with a simple visit or a telephone call.

    ps. I remember listening to a person in the old Village of Silver Lake thinking that his garbage was for free because it was embedded in his tax bill. I guess he deducted that in his taxes!

  3. Great response. Thx says:

    Garbage fees/contracts can be dated to correspond with the yearly/fiscal tax bill. No reason why that shouldn’t happen.

    There’s also no reason why these fees are billed and paid quarterly. That’s just four times the paperwork instead of once. We are already allowed to make half payments on our tax bill. No reason why these quarterly fees can’t be worked back into the yearly taxes.

    Consolidation of services is the latest and greatest ‘term’ around. No reason why we shouldn’t ‘consolidate the paperwork’. Save few bucks on quarterly mailings and maybe even a few trees too.

  4. It is by choice of the boards says:

    1. Yes, contracts could be dated to correspond to budget planning and approval in November…with max increase possibility built in the contract obligation.
    2. Choice of quarterly is because the trade off is a little office costs vs large option to move the monies to other ‘projects’. Once the decision to go this route of a fee, they want to be able to adjust the fee inside the year which they could not do with a budget item/mil rate item. You know, increase beginning in 3rd quarter, etc… Also once it is a fee, one needs to make such fee situations workable for the poorest of the taxpayers to allow them to be on time with the payment and to give those with larger incomes the option of paying ahead. This still will not stop the early payers from having to pay any increase inside the year that the board decides is a ‘must have’. In some communities, they pay for an outside service to do the issuance and the collecting of the fees and in some, they get with the service a distribution of a newsletter. Since the owners of the property/ies are the ones receiving the bill and typically not renters, it gives the municipality the opportunity to communicate are no additional postage cost.
    3. Consolidation of series, yes, a good term. In this case, adding the fees to the budget and issuance of a single tax bill would be true consolidation of services!
    Again, one great way to make change is to run for office with a very visible platform but you must run for the president or chairman to be able to control the direction of the municipality you are it. Otherwise, you must follow the leader and hope they have an idea of how to run big business.

  5. Par for the course says:

    Just another way for the Village to really take us residents to poor land. I mean, isnt paying about 2 grand per year for water, sewer and garbage enough?

  6. Say it isn’t so says:

    Poor people don’t pay taxes. Or do they?

    All the more reason to incorporate the fees into the tax bills. Taxes are paid monthly thru mortage escrow. That’s the way ‘poor’ people pay to live, month to month. Think about it.

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