What are citizens paying for?

Dear Editor,

As June 30 approaches I have to search for several thousand dollars to pay city taxes for the third quarter.

One must ponder and reflect on what am I paying for. Collecting garbage and drainage, but for one-and-a-half years I have been paying a private contractor to collect my garbage. Drainage? Suffice it to say that three days after heavy rainfall I still have three inches of water in my yard.

I am not trying to blame anyone – blame is just an excuse to do nothing. The problem has to be fixed not blamed on this or that.

Two examples:

“It is the plastic.” It is not “the plastic.” The plastic floats and can be seen accumulating at any point that there is a surface obstacle. The water can drain below the plastic if the drains are cleaned.

“It is the outfalls to the river which are blocked with river residue – mud.” This is true but the solution is portrayed as horrendously expensive. Would not a simple exercise with some (one or two) high pressure hoses cutting away the land – like the pictures shown on television of high pressure hoses cutting away land for the mining industry – be done with mud at the right stage of the tide?

I cannot have my name published as I don’t want my intentions muddled with politics (the art of compromise). However something needs to get done, or explain to me, what am I paying for?

Yours faithfully,

(Name and address provided)