The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Editorials

Related Photos

  • cartoon 11-30

    cartoon 11-30

November 29, 2012

Our View: Taxpayers should come first in city business

The Free Press

— As the North Mankato City Council continues a legitimate discussion on changes to its recycling contract in the year ahead, what's best for taxpayers should be the overriding context.

The decision will not be easy and will likely include concerns from some council members about the impact on the recycling facility jointly owned by the city and Nicollet County. Some council members may raise the issue of sticking with a local business as part of an implied loyalty.

All are legitimate concerns and worthy of discussion. But in the end, what's best for taxpayers should guide this decision.

North Mankato finds itself renewing the contract of Hansen Sanitation for recycling. The current system requires North Mankato residents to sort their recycling into as many as seven separate grocery bags for paper, cans, plastic and five colors of glass.

The council was apparently feeling pressure to renew as the year ended even though Waste Management offered much more user friendly, single-sort recycling at a lower cost than North Mankato is currently paying.

Waste Management's bid came in at $5.65 per household per month, $1.82 less than Hansen.

Part of the city's dilemma is that Hansen is required under the current city contract to deliver the recyclables to the city-county owned recycling facility, which prepares recyclables for sale on the open market.

The bid from Waste Management would have directed the recyclables to the company's own facility, thereby reducing the volume and the business to North Mankato's own facility. And even if Waste Management was required to deliver to North Mankato's facility, the plant might have to be modified at some expense to process the single-sort deliveries.

If North Mankato went with Waste Management in the contract where the company used its own facility, the North Mankato facility would lose business and may have to reduce a workforce made up  of workers from MRCI, an organization that offers employment to people with developmental disabilities.

But looking at the issue from a taxpayer's perspective lends itself to an analysis that the cost and ease of recycling should be the primary concern and the business volume of the city-county owned recycling center should be a secondary concern.

The joint city-county recycling center, called Riverbend Recycling Center, is set up to serve all of Nicollet County, with the exception of St. Peter. It was set up as a government business with the assumption that it would be operated as a business, accepting the ups and downs of the business cycle.

While a government-owned recycling center may have been a convenient option for the Hansen recycling, the market may be changing. Waste Management is offering a better price to city taxpayers and will make sorting recycling easier.

Those are two big pluses in this equation.

More research may suggest the loss of business at the recycling center would impact taxpayers more than a recycling rate decrease. We hope that is not the case because it suggests taxpayers are a subsidizing board of directors for the recycling center.

Governments are set up to serve taxpayers. They should negotiate for the best price and highest value on public services. Government should not make taxpayers unintended stockholders of a business they have little control over.

 

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Editorials
  • Our View: Lakes reveal chemical abundance Even if your mother may not have had scientific data at her fingertips, she obviously knew what she was talking about when she said don't drink lake water. A new study makes that advice more important than ever and raises concerns about how we treat

    May 20, 2013

  • Press 'shield law' is a bad idea Press 'shield law' is a bad idea The Obama administration announced last week that it is throwing its support behind the press shield law that has been stalled in Congress since time immemorial. Critics insist that the administration, suddenly mired

    May 19, 2013

  • mfp thumbgraphic Shelter for homeless right start To Mankato civic leaders for, once again, stepping up to address a growing demand for shelter by homeless women. The needs appears to be dramatic and continuing even though the Theresa House, Welcome Inn shelters and the CADA House program for domest

    May 18, 2013 1 Photo

  • Our View: SEC should act on ratings conflicts Money talks. In the continuing dispute over the all-too-cozy relationship between the people who create and sell financial products and the people who rate their risk, the money says: Shut up and let us do what we want. Minnesota Sen. Al Franken and

    May 17, 2013

  • Time runs short for Legislature Focus, Minnesota legislators, as you have many details left So much for the theory that one party controlling Minnesota's House, Senate and governor's chair would mean fast work in St. Paul. Exactly one week from the end of the 2013 regular session a

    May 16, 2013

  • records' seizure harms free press This has not been a good week for President Obama. First it was learned that the Internal Revenue Service was targeting conservative organizations with special scrutiny, the practice of which the White House said it was unaware. Then news surfaced th

    May 16, 2013

  • Investigate IRS action on groups The revelation that the Internal Revenue Service was targeting conservative groups has drawn criticism from both parties. But the Wall Street Journal this week revealed that the scrutiny went beyond groups that had "tea party" or "patriot" in their n

    May 15, 2013

  • Military needs new approach in assault cases Just when you thought the sexual assault problems in the military couldn't get worse, two events emerged last week to prove you wrong. The chief of the Air Force sexual assault prevention branch was arrested on suspicion of drunkenly groping a woman

    May 14, 2013

  • A watchdog carries on the fight In journalism circles, the Timberjay is the little newspaper with lots of moxie. This weekly newspaper Up North, in Ely, has established a tradition of fighting hard for the public's right to know. That's not a task to be taken lightly. It's a big, e

    May 13, 2013

  • What columnists and editorialists are saying about the issues of the day

    Hold IRS accountable for targeting conservative groups A bedrock principle of U.S. democracy is that the coercive powers of government are never used for partisan purpose. The law is blind to political viewpoint, and so are its enforcers, most espec

    May 12, 2013