THE NEW-HARMONY GAZETTE.
COUNCIL PRESIDENT BLAYLOCK PUSHES UP TRASH PICK UP RATES!
by: Dan Barton, Publisher February 2019 Edition
As I reported in the January edition of the New Harmony Gazette, Council President Alvin Blaylock attempted in December 2018 to get an increase in the Town’s Trash Pick-Up rates, from $8 to a new rate of $10 per month, that’s a 25% increase. Now, it may not sound like much to some folks, but if you’re living on Social Security Income the new annual Trash Pick-Up rate increase of $24 per year is just another hit on your already meager income. Mr. Blaylock couldn’t get a motion from any of the Council-members in December and so he wasn’t able to get the rate increase passed at that Council meeting. But he promised the Council- members that he would try again in January 2019, and he did.
At the January meeting, Councilman Blaylock again asked the Council for a motion to increase the rates, and he got it. Councilman Watson made the motion and Councilman Wade seconded. Reluctantly. Even so, the Council-members still rubber stamped it through, though Roger Wade had said at the December meeting that the current contract with Advanced Disposal, would be up on January 1st, 2020.
Blaylock argued at the January meeting that the total income the Town of New Harmony receives per month from all customers for Trash Pick-Up is $3,584 and the total monthly expense paid out to Advanced Disposal was $3,735. He said that the Town is running a deficit of $151 per month on the Trash Collection Fund. That would seem to be running $1,812 annually in the red. Sure enough, if you were to do the math the way Alvin Blaylock does the math it would look like you were running an accumulated deficit over that twelve month period in the amount of $1,812. But deficits are not determined month to month from strictly cash inflow and outflow. Particularly since there was a positive balance in the Trash Collection Fund at the end of 2018 of $3,470. With that balance brought forward as a 2019 opening balance of $3,470, the Trash Fund would still have $1,658 left in the Trash Collection account after all of the annual income and expenses are calculated. No deficit!
That could be why Councilman Roger Wade questioned Blaylock’s reasoning at the December meeting when Blaylock asked for the rate increase. It is premature to implement an increase, given that there will be a new contract in 2020 and the possibility of another increase again at that time under these circumstances. It can easily be held off for one year. So why the rush, Alvin? Why pay something up front under a false set of circumstances, when you don’t have to? Anybody who balances a checkbook knows that you have to bring the balance forward to determine whether or not an account is in balance, month by month or annually and to know if you are truly running in the red.
This is just another example of Blaylock’s mystical reasoning that will cost New Harmony residents a little more money over the next twelve months that they shouldn’t have to pay. Maybe not much, in Blaylock’s mind. But it’s also not necessary. You folks can do the math yourself.
Does something smell funny about Blaylock’s new math?
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