In the county I live in they did just that! Five years ago! Let all the union workers go and contracted most of it out.
The Reeve claims it saves the county $1.5 million a year, which on a $15.7 million dollar operating budget is pretty good? And remember that budget of $15.7 is way up because of the crazy growth around here and all the developement?
Now some people claim the service has gone down and the roads are poorer but in fact more money is being put into road construction and gravel than pre-privatization...a lot more! It is hard to compare five years ago to, today because the traffic has probably tripled due to all the oil and gas activity!
You always get complainers who look at only one side...while benifitting in a big way from that progress? In this county all the residential and farmland taxes account for less than 30% of the county revenue.
Surface leases, pipelines, compressor stations etc. have put a lot of dollars in the local farmers pockets. In fact it saved a lot of them from going under the last few years!
The Reeve claims it saves the county $1.5 million a year, which on a $15.7 million dollar operating budget is pretty good? And remember that budget of $15.7 is way up because of the crazy growth around here and all the developement?
Now some people claim the service has gone down and the roads are poorer but in fact more money is being put into road construction and gravel than pre-privatization...a lot more! It is hard to compare five years ago to, today because the traffic has probably tripled due to all the oil and gas activity!
You always get complainers who look at only one side...while benifitting in a big way from that progress? In this county all the residential and farmland taxes account for less than 30% of the county revenue.
Surface leases, pipelines, compressor stations etc. have put a lot of dollars in the local farmers pockets. In fact it saved a lot of them from going under the last few years!
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