Trash Collection in Chicago Where Taxpayer Ripoffs are the Norm

Why do Chicago residents pay three times more for trash removal compared to residents of cities such as San Diego, Miami, Dallas and Phoenix?

Well, let's just say that Chicago is and has long been ruled by a troika of public employee unions, local politicians and the city's workers. Except when it comes time to pay the bills, taxpayers don't seem to count.

As an example of Chicago at work, its trash collection system is truly one-of-a-kind. It's also unbelievably wasteful and represents a total ripoff of city residents. This all-out taxpayer fleecing has been going on for a long time as public employee unions, local politicians and city workers have joined together to the detriment of those who pay the bills. The taxpayers are being fleeced.

A few brief excerpts from Chicago Mayor Trashes Politics of Waste Removal will help tell the story of trash collection by city employees:

"Over the next few hours, the men emptied scores of black containers, hopping on and off their truck as they lumbered from block to block. It's a tough job but quitting time usually comes early. Total time worked on a typical shift: about 5½ hours, according to a city audit.

"Nobody works for the city for eight hours," said Kris Squalls, a 48-year-old Teamster who has driven a city garbage truck for 25 years and now makes about $70,000 a year. "Not the mayor, not anybody."

Here's what another city worker has to say about things:

"Perry Brown, a 63-year-old city laborer with a neatly trimmed white beard and an 11th-grade education, said he doubted he could find another $32-an-hour job if he were cut. He earns about $90,000 a year in salary and benefits, enough to send two of his three children through college and buy a three-bedroom home.

Tough talk against city laborers is usually voiced by sedentary bureaucrats with soft hands, he said: "We work harder than any of them."

On a recent work day, Mr. Brown left home before dawn in a new white Cadillac. Once at the ward sanitation yard, he ate breakfast—a bologna sandwich—and changed into work clothes. On a typical day, he'll endure bad smells, leaky garbage bags, rodents, dead animals and, depending on the season, searing heat or driving snow.

"It's a nasty job," he said, "but it's the best paying job I've ever had.""

What's the effect on taxpayers? Well, here's how Chicago working conditions and trash hauling costs compare to those of other cities:

"The (labor union) contracts also protected some comically inefficient separations of responsibility that require, for example, three workers to change the bulb on a street light—a driver, a laborer and an electrician—and two workers to run a power washer while removing graffiti.

In one deal, only Teamsters are allowed to drive most city trucks—and driving is all they are required to do, prompting complaints from citizens who see drivers sleeping or loafing in their vehicles at job sites.

Dick Simpson, a former alderman and chairman of the political science department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, released a study this year of waste, theft, patronage, nepotism and contract rigging that estimated such behavior costs residents close to $350 million a year, a figure based on city reports and court cases over the past two decades."

If that doesn't give you a complete picture of Chicago's disdain for its resident taxpayers, I recommend that you read the article in its entirety.

How much longer can this go on, and how much longer will taxpayers allow it to continue? And that's not just a question about Chicago either. It's one for all of us taxpayers.

Thanks. Bob.