Bankruptcy is best city choice

Toledo Mayor Mike Bell has been as transparent as glass, yet the old union guard still won't believe him ("Toledo unions reject Bell's giveback plan," Feb. 26). He should just go ahead with bankruptcy proceedings. Then he won't have to worry about a union telling him what he can and can't do.

City employees need to wake up and smell the dead flowers. They should realize the old ways are dead and they are lucky they have jobs, because many do not.

Other people in this city and region pay our own health-insurance premiums, save for our retirement out of our own pockets, and still manage to survive.

I am tired of public employees' moaning and groaning. We do not owe them anything more than an hourly wage. Let them fend for themselves and find out how expensive health insurance is.

Mayor Bell,get the paperwork ready. We will see if the unions change their mind when the contracts become null and void.

Mike Monaghan

Merriweather Road

The best thing for the city to do is file for bankruptcy. Citizens are tapped out on paying taxes. When most of your budget is required to cover wages and benefits, you are never going to be able to keep your head above water.

The city needs to find a solution that has everyone paying his or her fair share. It also needs to privatize everything that it can, sell all city property, tell employees they have to do more with less as the private sector does, and do only what is stated in the City Charter.

Don't just talk about it, but take action now.

Tim Scott

Maumee

I shook my head in disgust about Toledo City Council President Wilma Brown's remark in your Feb. 27 article, "Toledo owes firefighters, police $2.8M." She said that the firefighters and police should "have a little more consideration about the plight that we are in."

Firefighters and police have made many concessions to help resolve the budget issues that City Council members have helped create. Firefighters and police were owed money last year but were gracious enough to defer payment until now. How is that taking advantage of anything? I am sure those workers could have used the money last year.

How about if Ms. Brown and other city leaders defer their pay until the city gets back on its feet and out of this mess they put it in?

How about if Mayor Bell defers the pay raises he gave people until city finances are straightened out and we are no longer in such debt?

How about if city leaders learn to live within their means as us real folks have to do every day?

The lack of common sense and intelligence Ms. Brown exhibits is one of the reasons I have never voted for her and never will.

Rebecca Swinney

South Park Lane

Instead of complaining about the amount of money to be paid to our firefighters and police, why not get rid of some of the useless flotsam that surrounds One Government Center?

Pay these courageous men and women who are firefighters and police, and be happy that our city is a reasonably safe place to live.

Judy Harvey

Utah Street

Mayor Bell should extinguish the idea of eliminating the tax credit for people in Toledo who work outside the city ("Canceling tax credit draws mixed support from council," Feb. 18).

We already have people leaving for the suburbs. Do we want to continue this trend?

Who will even look to purchase a house in Toledo if he or she is transferred from outside the area to work for a suburban company?

I live in Toledo, pay property taxes, and shop for groceries and clothes and spend money on entertainment here. This all adds to the Toledo tax base. I have voted for all tax levies - school, library, Metroparks.

If this tax increase goes through, I will be forced to sell my house and move to Oregon. This extra tax is the incentive I need to move from the city.

Kim Friar

Hampton Avenue

The City of Toledo tax department is living in the dark ages. While other municipalities are steering people online, we are still sending out income tax forms, estimates, and labels. How much does that cost for printing, postage, and labor?

We need to revamp the tax department to go after the people who owe the city money.

We need to set up a database with the federal government that takes information from current electronic filings and W-2 forms.

It can take the city four years to catch tax cheats. By that time, they've moved or lost their paperwork.

Stop sending forms to people who use tax professionals. Stop individual filings and move toward joint filings.

Make it mandatory to file, and charge $25 for late filings. Go after tax cheats with threats of bad credit reports or liens. Eliminate employee business-expense forms.

When it comes to its major source of income, the tax department, this city does not run efficiently.

Stephen Klein

Dean Avenue

On the same day Mayor Bell suggested we form an alliance with Detroit, the mayor of that city declared the need to shrink it drastically as the only way to provide crucial services to those neighborhoods still worthy of saving ("Mayor notes woes but sees a rebound," Feb. 25).

With all of the problems Toledo is facing, such an alliance would be like throwing a cement block to a drowning person.

Thinking outside the box is great, but such a move would be thinking inside a coffin.

It appears inevitable that the City of Toledo is headed at a minimum toward receivership, and bankruptcy is not out of the question.

It seems clear the collective bargaining agreements will remain as they are without such drastic moves, since the unions and the administration and City Council seem unable to reach any consensus to save the city.

When that happens, this city will not realistically recover for at least20 years andpossibly even longer.

We are on the verge of municipal death,and none of the leaders of this community can find the switch on the life-support machine.

Gregory L. Arnold

Sylvania

I have been a proud resident of Toledo since 2001. I never liked the city income tax, but I like the services I receive from the city so I live with it.

Now Toledo Public Schools wants to take another 0.75 percent from my paycheck ("TPS warns of 'ugly' outcome if levy fails," Feb. 21). No way. I am single, have never used the school system, and never will since I do not have children.

Everyone should support the school system, but there should be a use tax. People should pay more for each child they have in school; after all, these parents are getting tax breaks from the federal government.

Why should I pay as much as someone who has two or three kids in the system?

Bill Wydo

Maxwell Road