My brother lives in a community where they buy stickers to put on their bags of garbage. It's never been a big deal there. People just know they need to do this and there isn't a line of cars going out of town to dump garbage along the highway.

Sandman
The city of Janesville has nothing to do with the school system. Thats why we vote for school board members every year.

Hey grabbala..I think you are going to be a victim of the budget cuts.

Don't think anyone will miss ya...see ya..

Actually, the more I think about it, JohnDoe's suggestion that they put a plow on the Zamboni makes the most sense.

It could plow, and the kids could play hockey the way it was meant to be played...outside, in the street, dodging cars.

I prefer D; on the steps of city hall.

Psst...Greg, this garbage bag charge...its really a bad idea and I'll tell you why.
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People are basically lazy and really don't want to deal with their garbage. This is especially true if the City places a fee on curbside disposal above "X" number of bags. The garbage fee will mean those X+1 bags will:
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a) end up opposite side of the curb down the street.
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b) on the roadside in the Town of Harmony.
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c) at rental units, X+1 bags will go(pick-one or more): down the basement, in the back yard, over the fence, across the street, but not in the landfill because the times are inconvenient (MooShoo's rule of garbage disposal is the radius of the circle of disposal is an exponential function of the curbside garbage fee, but is inversely related to the motivation of the disposer).
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d) on the steps of city hall.
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Disposing garbage is like hand washing after going to the bathroom. We want everyone to do it properly and we do not want to create impediments to doing so. Please do not put a fee on curbside disposal. It is really, really a bad idea with many unintended consequences.

So this is how Janesville "cuts" their budget???:

"The budget includes money for three major projects:
-- $500,000 to buy bad property in the inner city neighborhoods.
-- $1.1 million for the ice arena.
-- $1 million for a new central fire station."

How about NO, NO, and NO (and double-NO for the bike trail underpass(unless it houses that ridiculous children's museum project as well)!

In this budget,citizens will have to truck their trash bags and slog through ice-bound streets, but you expect them to pay over a million dollars for an ice arena and $500k for homes that should be declared abandoned and auctioned off or demolished at the expense of whomever holds the deed/debt?

And sorry fire-folks, but this city is floating in fire stations and equipment, and that $1m expenditure can wait a while why didn't the city fix that first before dumping tens of millions on all the wasteful repairs to Craig?).

STOP THIS WASTE! We haven't even begun to see the tip of the economic crisis yet in this town -- plan ahead.

If they decide to only allow 3 or 4 garbage bags a week. Hopeing that people will recycle more then their gonna have to pay for the recycling to come once a week. Not every other week

If the city wants to hold off on snow plowing until 3" of snow falls, that's fine. However, they need to treat all roads equally. Don't ever try to venture onto a side street after a snowstorm. What irritates me is that the people that live on those streets pay taxes, too. Why can't they get the same consideration as the people that live on a bus route do, which, luckily, I happen to. Plows go by my house, blades down, 6 or 8 times after a snowfall. Believe it or not, not everyone can afford a 4x4 to get through these WI winters. I'm tired of hearing people say they had to miss work because they couldn't get off their street. That is completely unacceptable. Please don't skimp on plowing. The tax-paying residents deserve better.

It seems to me that the city council has forgotten that there are MANY people unemployed in Janesville.
1.)How will trash bags be monitored? The one-person driver will have to count and keep track? Therefore slowing down the progress on his route? Or wait--the city could hire some one new for each route to count trash bags at each stop! Afterall they can always raise our taxes to get the money.
2.)Employee pay-- I had to laugh. OF COURSE the Administration employees would still get raises! That's how government works.
3.)Scratch the Ice Arena. No one will be able to afford to go to it. Wait until things are BETTER, then maybe.
4.)I don't know about the fire station--could it wait until things get better?
5.)The bike trail under Milwaukee street. This subject has been beaten to death. It is silly and not needed. Maybe we could buy the old "overpass" things from GM that are not being used to get employees from one parking lot to another and put them OVER Milwaukee Street, for all of the walkers there.
6.)How about cutting out the street sweeper fees. They go up and down my street with their sweepers off the ground 5 or 6 times everytime they are around this area. What a waste.
7.) Leave the Tallman House alone. I really don't think that they get enough visitors every year to merit a tax increase for its repairs. It is probably in better shape now than when it was originally. It is a want not a need.
Just a few thoughts from a taxpayer.

raystone; absolutely correct - kind of like a game kids play - they like to think of it as sharing - 1 for you... 2 for me... 1 for you... 2 for me...

This city is playing the old government strategy on getting through a tax increase. Cut core services instead of fringe expenses to get public opinion behind a tax increase.

Ah yes, the ice arena...It is not the proper purpose of government to buy, build, own, operate or maintain an ice arena. The solution to the budget dilemma seems obvious to me!

Not enough...........

How much do the police and firemen get paid per hour?

Now that I know city workers make around $26 an hour I won't be happy until I see them take a $10/ hour wage cut.

I would like to see next year the following:

*A bike tunnel under Milwaukee Street
*The complete restoration of the Tallman House
*A city funded water park and hotel/convention center
*Another park built on the north side

leftofcenter...I hear what you are saying...but, unfortunately, if the city started charging for more trash put out to the curb...some people wouldn't put out less...or pay more...their property would look like a landfill...or it would be dumped illegally...or they would just set some trashbags in front of someone's house that only has one or two sitting out.

No, they absolutely do not make sense. Per usual, government spends money down the rat hole for pet projects, then pinches pennies on the stuff that matters, police services, street plowing, trash pickup, you know, the things that we generally are supposed to be paying taxes for. But, until the majority of people in this town realize that this isn't the tax and spend days of the 1990's, and start voting these clowns out of office, nothing will change.

I see the ice arena made it into the budget. Sheesh. Needs vs wants. As far as the garbage goes, those that throw more, should pay more. I have 1 bag of garbage every week, and recycle 3X that much, compost, etc. Why should I pay the same for trash as these people that put 15 bags out to the curb, with no recycling containers???

Levitt's priorities are askew.

Basic services should be job number 1.

Perhaps to align with his thinking...we should put a plow on the Zamboni and get some real use out of it.

If we were just hanging on to basic services it would be OK, but it sounds like the city has plenty of money for non-essential projects, so I don't think there should be an increase. Maybe we can fight back and get all our home appraised lower.

What they need to do is get rid of some of these higher ups who only can spend money I haven't got. How much is it going to cost to collect he extra charge for extra bags of garbage.

Beloit had a $2.6M budget deficit,and ended up balancing it primarily with admin position cuts and union pay freezes.
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"Arft explained how the operating budget for 2010 started out with a $2.6 million deficit. In order to bridge the gap, there were five positions cut as well as the elimination of out-of-state travel expenses....
To address shortfalls, Arft asked the 330 union employees — as well as the 70 city employees who are non-union workers and administrators — to forgo the scheduled 2.5 percent salary increase for the final year of a three-year contract that is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2010.
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http://www.beloitdailynews.com/articles/...