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I like The Belvidere Crier proposal in the comments section in general (quite visionary) – long range plans, increasing tourism and all that. 

I did look over the 2011 budget posted in this forum for some savings – not sure what the 2012 budget looks like or what the shortfall is – I am thinking about going to the next hearing just to see what’s up.

At the last meeting the news reports were that eliminating trash pickup and cutting the recreation program were the only options discussed.

The obvious targets should be the internal administration costs (close to $150,000.00) and the finance expenses (over $65,000.00).

It should be easy to identify some line items from these categories that can be either eliminated or done for a lot less money – go paperless for example – get into the 21^st century – contract the service out.  The only bills I get by snail mail now are Belvidere taxes and Belvidere sewer – everything else is on-line and paperless.  Copying expenses, mailing and postage expenses, and the supporting clerical costs are a total waste of money in today’s high tech information world.

I am willing to bet that any decent financial payroll or billing services company could do all this for a lot less money and a lot more efficiently via web services on the internet.

The good news is that the trash and recycling program has gone commercial – I have no problem paying $20.00 per month to have a single pickup with two 96 gallon carts provided by the vendor (one for trash and one for recycling) instead of Belvidere’s 30 gallon/3 container limit (resident provided) for trash only.

Also, the single stream recycling (which had somehow eluded Belvidere’s program) means no separating, no bundling, no crushing, and no tying up – just put it in the cart that they provide and the recycling center does the rest.

Private industries, driven by their profit motive, always provide a better product or service that a government bureaucracy at any level.