Maz

Half our property tax goes on schools, and half of that goes on the school buses!!

Our bins are emptied once a week. It's subsidised. A bit, not much. We pay $2.40 for each bin emptied in the form of a pre-paid sticker on each bin, and the same charge applies to each lawn & leaf bag we put out. However, all recycling is free.

elfman

You should have noticed by now that in NJ each little town of 1,000 people has its own police and fire department and they are
(a) completely separate jurisdictional entities from the PDs and FDs of the little towns of similar size three miles up the road.
(b) often overmanned and overequipped. Example: in the last six months I've seen the Verona first responders in action in our street twice (once for a kitchen fire opposite, and then when next door's teenage son set their garage on fire having a crafty ciggie) and both times they have filled the entire street with (no exaggeration) three fire engines, a ladder truck, two ambulances, one vehicle marked "heavy rescue squad", and three police cars.

snowbunny

I might have to go into hospital for a morphine drip, but my hatred of hospitals is pretty strong. I think a stone fragment is moving and I'm thanking god I don't have a willy for it to be caught in. Thanks everyone for your thoughts, will respond when I am more stable. Just felt compelled for some reason to mention the standard v itemised deductions, I got stung by that my first year outta college, will explain later for a laugh.

mandpete

Just under two thirds of our property tax goes on education, we currently pay $3.80 for every $100 of the assessed valuation. Fortunately, at the moment the assessed value of our property is nowhere near the actual market value.

We do, however, get our bins emptied every week and recycling, garden waste and large household trash collected fortnightly for no extra charge.

Jerseygirl

I'll keep my fingers crossed you won't have to make another trip to the hospital. Now take it easy and rest.

krizzy

We don't have a pick up...we have to take our rubbish to the dump....

krizzy

They do the same here...but I must say if you call 911 the cops are here in under a min with a bag of trick for heart attacks...it was just amazing..they came from all ways...next the fire trunks then the ambulance....

Roland Hulme

Oooh. You have my sympathies. Wifey had kidney stones - she was in AGONY. And now she's pretty much immune to anything other than enough morphine to stun an elephant and her pain tolerence is so high, she could probably pop out children like shucking peas.

Feel better.

Roland Hulme

Our council tax went up YEAR after YEAR above the rate of inflation and then they cut the bin emptying from every week to a fortnight. I thought: Why the hell are we paying more than almost any other council in Britain and getting half the service?

Mind you, our police in Winchester drove around in BMWs. I thought: What the hell is wrong with a good old Vauxhall Vectra??!?!?!

At least cops in America drive domestic.

dunroving

They only collect every 2 weeks here where I am (Stirling Council) - regular bins alternate with garden/cardboard - and the little recycle box (paper, glass, cans) is collected every week. Can't say the fortnightly collection has been a problem for me. I only fill a kitchen gardbage bag every week or two, didn't even carry the bin down the 15 steps to the roadside today as it only had one bag in it. Of course, I'm single but it's mostly because I compost and recycle as much as possible.

There's even been talk in the UK of charging by weight (not sure how - maybe the lorry would have a weighing scale?), but they're concerned it would encourage more flytipping (which is already bad enough).

In NC, I had kerbside rubbish, kerbside garden waste, kerbside recycle and kerbside solid waste (wood, household items, anything) carried off every week. Was very convenient but seemed to encourage profligate waste. I swear my next door neighbour had enough crap on his front yard to fill a house every few weeks, it was just bizarre. His house must have been based on the Tardis.

elfman

Perhaps you shouldn’t judge the service you get purely on the basis of rubbish collection. After all, council tax generally also pays for police, fire, recycling, schools, leisure centres, park and ride schemes, parks and open spaces, street cleaning, subsidising of public transport, tourism, museums, social housing grants, housing and council tax benefits, environmental health and food safety in pubs, restaurants and shops, planning services, support for voluntary groups, meals on wheels, facilities for young people, adapting homes for disabled people, play centres for children, cctv installation, sports facilities, issuing taxi licences, flood defences etc. Was any of that any of that in your area area better or worse than elsewhere?

TruBrit

where, in the US?

TruBrit

it is a joke when you list all the council tax has to cover!

i would pay extra for my bins to be emptied weekly if that was the case as we have to in our area for the second collection.

Bob

It's not a bit town....and it's a pay per chuck rubbish on top of the tax, a couple of bucks for a blue rubbish bag you get through the town, what doesn't fit in won't get picked up.

Bob

quite a lot of the US is like that...most of maine unless you pay private contractors in the cities...and then only in the larger cities..