Step Right Up...Have They Got a Plan for You!

This came in over the transom. We're not sure what to make of it, but we'll share it with you and let you draw your own conclusions.

Noted city revitalization specialist and budget guru Harold Hill has offered the City of New Albany a novel idea for keeping its sewer rates lower than would otherwise be required.

During a closed-door meeting with selected members of the city's legislative body, Hill touted his program for subsidizing sanitary waste removal costs. Sources who attended the meeting, but who declined to be identified for this story on the grounds that they fear retribution, tell NA Shadow Council that an unidentified number of council members were very receptive to what is being called the "Hill Plan."

Hill credits Meredith Wilson, CEO of MM Enterprises, the Iowa-based consulting firm, for devising the plan, but it is Hill who has made his living by shopping the program in cities throughout the Midwest.

The program to save the sewers will require several weeks of intensive educational sessions for the council before it can be put into effect. Without public interest, says Hill, the counterintuitive proposal would easily become law."

Only if the public's attention can be diverted can it succeed," said Hill. "Otherwise, there is trouble right here" in New Albany. "With a capital T," he finished, according to the sources.

He suggested that public entertainment might do the trick. "Maybe music. Maybe fireworks. $35,000 in tax money ought to do it," he said.

Under the plan, the average worker in New Albany would direct that one-third of the income taxes he or she pays to the city be diverted to pay sewer charges. The average worker would voluntarily instruct the city to take $56 each year for the "Hill Plan." It is not known if this would be done as an affirmative payroll check-off or if the employee could opt out of the plan and leave the taxes in the city's EDIT fund. The EDIT is New Albany's most effective tool for economic development and revitalization.

In exchange, the sewer board, operators of the city-owned utility, would receive $875,000 each year to keep the rates artificially low. New Albany's sewer rates are among the lowest in the region already, but have been rising over the past 120 years, leading to fears on the part of some former and current council members that residents just might stop urinating and defecating, leading to a host of public health problems.

The accounting firm of Crowe Chizek provided an analysis last year that showed that such a subsidy would save the average ratepayer about $15 a year.When asked how he could persuade the residents of New Albany to divert $56 a year in precious resources in exchange for the modest sum of $15 a year, Hill said "Trust me!"

"Industries will flock to New Albany and your near-neighbors will love you," continued Hill. "Commercial businesses, profligate water users, and almost any industrial facility will be receiving the rest of that money. Plus, those who live outside the city and pay no EDIT taxes to New Albany will receive a reduction in their bills of $27.50, or 150% of what New Albanians would receive in subsidies."Critics of the plan insist that the people of New Albany will not accept a plan that, on its face, starves the city of much-needed resources intended to, among other things, repair long-neglected city streets and other infrastructure.

To that, Hill replied "Don't tell them."