- Jon Hunter doesn't want to pay a fourth-penny sales tax. Heck, he doesn't even want to pay the second-penny sales tax: he's asking the commission for a rebate of $675 on tax paid on equipment purchased from International Graphics Associates in 2008.
- Mark Weismantel and Stacey Budahl are also asking the city to knock a chunk off their taxes. Someone evidently hit the wrong button and applied the wrong button to their levies, overcharging Weismantel $905 and Budahl $405.
- Mayor Hexom reports three complaints about snow removal (one of those would have been from my folks, who found the city pushed snow out of an alley into a solid six-foot wall on one of their driveways). But put on a happy face: Mayor Hexom says there were "MANY!!" compliments on snow removal.
- Arguably in the green field, Madison's electricity demand for 2009 hit a five-year low of 187 megawatts, down 3% from 2008 and down 7% from the 2007 peak of 202 MW. The biggest savings came in that darned cool July we had. By megawatt-hours, Madison's energy purchases were the lowest since 2000.
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Sunday, January 31, 2010
City Commission Notes: Refunding Taxes, Moving Snow, Using Less Electricity
Notes from the Madison City Commission agenda packet for their February 1 meeting:
I think #4 would be more related to the economy rather than people being green.
ReplyDelete#4 may be related to replacing incandescent bulbs with efficient florescent bulbs, which has cut usage dramatically all over the country. As we reduce our demand in Madison, revenue to the City decreases which causes one of two things. Either staff and expenses have to be cut, or rates increased to make up the difference. We all know what City of Madison rates for electricity have done in the past ten years, and especially this year. Cory ran a recent graph of rates the past ten years, but how have employee numbers and salary costs increased in the past ten years? Probably more than our 50-year population of 6500 justifies.
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