I was saddened to read in the April 27 Maui News that the county will close 1,100 delinquent trash accounts beginning May 10. Where are these people going to dump their trash? This is going to be catastrophic for our beautiful island of Maui! The entire island of O‘ahu, the City of Los Angeles and many other cities and counties across America pay for trash collection 100 percent by property taxes. We should too! They are tax-deductible, too!
How much of the $144 per year trash fee goes for paying the special accounting department in the Environmental Management Department to open the mail and post the checks to a special computer program, which is then handed to the drivers so they know whose trash to pick up and whose not to pick up? The Finance Department already has receipts in all property taxes and so this is duplication and wasteful. On O‘ahu every household has a trash barrel which gets picked up, and every property taxpayer gets a tax deduction on their federal income tax return. On O‘ahu the property tax even includes hauling away abandoned cars. And O‘ahu is a lot cleaner than Maui!
Bob Babson
Kihei