On Wednesday, the Hillsborough County Commission will hold a much-anticipated public hearing on whether to open up the county's $60 million-a-year garbage contracts to competitive bidding for the first time in 15 years. Community members from both the right and the left are joining together to advocate that they do just that.
The Tampa 912 Tea Party Coalition has formed a website called STOP County Crony Capitalism (www.StopCCC.com), calling on their members to fill the County Center's chambers at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Florida cities and counties that have done competitive procurements have seen significant reductions in rates and improvement in waste collection and recycling services. Recent Competitive Procurements indicate that our Current Rates are TOO HIGH and that Costs may be REDUCED by over $100 Million through a Competitive Bid. Municipalities all over the State of Florida, as well as the country, have reduced costs and transitioned to new Service Providers with no impacts to customers (except lower rates). Hundreds of millions of dollars is at stake and our Commissioners must ensure the County receives quality services at competitive costs.
We cannot allow Politics to Trump Good Public Policy!
This article appears in Dec 8-14, 2011.