Roanoke City leaders like to talk about not raising taxes (except for the two year hike in the meals tax), but I have a question. Is cutting a service and not reducing my tax bill, essentially a tax increase. Especially when I have to spend extra money to pick up the slack for the service that Roanoke City used to provide?

Case in point: loose leaf collection. This has long been a gripe of mine. For years, Roanoke City would annually (sometimes twice a season) come by with a huge vacuum on wheels and suck up all loose leaves curbside. This was a tremendous service, as the leaves are an eyesore and a safety hazard. Have you hit a patch of wet leaves before… it’s almost like ice.

Several years ago, while facing a budget shortfall, city leaders abandoned loose leaf collection. Their solution: bag your own leaves in specially mandated brown bags (that you have to buy) and they will pick them up once a year… for free (I love that phrase… as nothing that the city does is for free… our tax dollars funded it all!). Keep in mind we, the taxpayers, owned that vacuum on wheels. Wonder what’s happening to it right now?

And, what if you have too many leaves to bag? The private sector to the rescue. Resourceful, business minded people have picked up the slack and started businesses where they will come by and vacuum up your leaves. Of course there is a cost for this… anywhere from $60 to $100. That’s $60 out of my wallet for a service my tax dollars used to cover. Kudos to these businesses for seeing and opportunity and seizing on it. But, no offense, I already paid for loose leaf collection, in my annual tax bill.

So, I think the next time Roanoke City decides they’ll cut a valuable service that made our streets looks better, made driving safer, and made home ownership slightly more convenient… they should consider sending us a tax refund. We could use that money for the businesses that are doing the city’s job.