The Greeley city council has initiated yet another plan to infringe on your rights. Some of them want to dictate who picks up your trash. Appearantly some residents have problems with multiple trash pickups on their street during the week and think the city should handle the problem for them. They also THINK the city will provide a cheaper better service.

This is wrong thinking on several counts. I cannot think of one single incident where government involvement has resulted in a cheaper, better service. We live in an (allegedly) free market economy, and there is a reason. Free markets provide competition which result in better customer service and lower prices on goods and services. Greeley trash pickup has benefited from this free market outlook.

I used to live in Loveland and they have had a city trash pickup for many years. Sometime in the early 90’s they instituted a recycling program. The result of this program that citizens not only had to pay for trash pickup along with their monthly water bill, but they also had to buy 25 cent stickers for each trash bag containing products that wouldn’t recycle. The end result was every Loveland resident has to pay for their trash TWICE. Explain to me how that is more efficient.

It appears that the city council and staff are bored and just looking for new areas to dabble in. If that’s the case, let’s trim down the staff size and lower the budget. If it’s not, let’s focus on some areas where the city government could use some improvement. Things like economics, traffic, crime and social activities. Fortunately one city council member, Ed Phillipsen, has already come out against this plan. Ultimately this is just another exercise in futility. The city will spend valuable tax dollars and resources coming up with a plan. If they do end up passing this plan I’m sure our enterprising local attorneys will put together a petition and make it a citywide ballot issue, which will most likely be defeated. Thousands of hours and millions of dollars later we will be right back where we are now.