Call it a tax. Call it a levy. Call it an assessment.
Call it EMS or Occupational Privilege.
Call it fees or licenses or dues.
File it under real estate or income or sales.
Call it to-MAY-to.
Call it to-MAH-to.
You know what, guys?
It’s all coming from the same wallet.
That’s an abbreviated and somewhat sanitized version of what went through my mind as I listened to the plan to pare several million dollars from Erie’s Public Works budget, part of the grinding process to eliminate between four and eight million dollars from the City’s budget in a well-has-run-dry world.
Public Works is the heart of most of the services the City provides to citizens short of putting out fires or stopping criminals.
Public Works is how the streets get plowed, how garbage gets picked up and how worn asphalt gets resurfaced.
Initially, the plan sounded aggressive, because it included the elimination of 19 Teamster positions which would save several million dollars to the City’s general fund balance.
Teamsters are drivers mostly and are the people who run the machines like plow and garbage trucks.
This came amid assurances that the public wouldn’t notice a drop off in services.
Then came the hitch (usually is one, isn’t there?).
By contract Teamsters can bump into other existing jobs within Public Works, like the jobs on the back of garbage trucks currently filled by cheaper, on-call employees.
So while the plan means that the money won’t be raised through property taxes, the shift of full union workers to what were no-benefit spots means an additional 45 dollars a year for property owners in garbage fees.
To-MAY-to.
To-MAH-to.
Yes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and given the contractual realities this could be seen as a step to reduce positions first and work on the other expenses later.
But any plan that cleans up property tax numbers by shifting expenses to other fees also borne by the taxpayer does little to ease the pain for people who are only carrying around one wallet.