2,000,000 Reasons

A special committee in 2006 studying neighborhoods in Jefferson City uncovered a startling figure -- 1,400 households had no trash service.  No one knew what all of those households were doing with their trash.

But owners of apartment complexes and other commercial businesses could tell what some of those households were doing with their trash because their bins were routinely filled with the waste of illegal dumpers.  And city code enforcement staff could tell what other people were doing with their trash because they went into houses where months and even years of trash were dumped in basements and backyards and spare rooms.  In one particularly offensive case, the decayed carcass of a dog was found beneath a mountain of trash in a spare bedroom as workers hauled the stinking refuse out of the house.

Given the opportunity to responsibly deal with their trash, far too many households chose to pass the responsibility and the costs of waste disposal onto business owners and taxpayers. That’s no longer possible under the current trash/recycling contract.  All households have trash service.  All households share in the cost of responsibly disposing of trash.

That has resulted in another startling figure. In the year since the city-wide trash/recycling service was initiated, over 2,000,000 additional pounds of trash have been collected from the year before. That’s over 2,000,000 pounds that would have gone uncollected and unaccounted for without the new program in place.

Proposition A would reverse that progress and return us to the dark days where business owners and taxpayers had to pick up the tab for irresponsible residents.  Supporters of Proposition A say everyone should have a choice on how they dispose of their trash. But we’ve been there before and we know what “choice” means for responsible citizens. It would cost us plenty.

Jefferson City was right to join nearly every city of any size in Missouri by insisting that everyone deal responsibly with their trash.  We have over 2,000,000 reasons that prove it.

DON’T THROW A GOOD THING AWAY.  GO TO THE POLLS ON APRIL 5TH AND VOTE “NO” ON PROPOSITION A.