R i v e r C i t i e s ’ R e a d e r
• V o l . 1 8 N o . 7 7 1 • F e b r u a r y 3 - 1 6 , 2 0 1 1 B u s i n e s s • P o l i t i c s • A r t s • C u l t u r e • N o w Y o u K n o w • R i v e r C i t i e s R e a d e r . c o m
Things we want you to know:
Two-year agreements (subject to early termination fees) required for new customers and current customers not on a Belief Plan. Current customers may change to a Belief Plan without a new agreement. Agreement terms apply as long as you are a customer. $30 activation fee and creditapproval may apply. Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee applies; this is not a tax or government-required charge. Additional fees, taxes and terms apply and vary by service and equipment.
Promotional phone
subject to change. U.S. Cellular Visa Debit Cards issued by MetaBank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Allow10–12 weeks for processing. Card does not have cash access and can be used at any merchant location that accepts Visa debit cards. Card valid for 120 days after issued. Smartphone Data Plans start at $30 per month or are included with certain Belief Plans. Application and data network usage charges may applywhen accessing applications.
BOGO:
Mail-in rebate and activation required on each handset.
Service credit
requires new two-year agreement and Smartphone purchase. $100 credit will be applied to your account in $50 increments over two billing periods. Credits will start within 60 days after activation. Account mustremain active in order to receive credit. No cash value.
Kansas Customers:
In areas in which U.S. Cellular receives support from the Federal Universal Service Fund, all reasonable requests for service must be met. Unresolved questions concerning services availability can be directed to the Kansas Corporation CommissionOffice of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at 1-800-662-0027. Android and the Android Robot are trademarks of Google, Inc. Trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. Other restrictions apply. See store or uscellular.com/project for details. Limited-time offer. ©2011 U.S. Cellular.
To learn more, visit
uscellular.com
or call
1-888-BUY-USCC
.
Get even closer with a freeAndroid
TM
-powered phone.
Activate apair of thesephones, switch to
U.S.
Cellular
®
and get a
$100
credit per line for a total of
$200
.
LG APEX
TM
get one free
when you buy one
for
$
49
99
After $80 mail-in rebates that come as Visa
®
debitcards. Applicable Smartphone Data Plans required.New 2-yr. agmts. and $30 act. fees may apply.While supplies last.
SAMSUNG MESMERIZE
TM
a Galaxy S
TM
phone
get one free
when you buy one
for
$
149
99
After $80 mail-in rebates that come as Visa debitcards. Applicable Smartphone Data Plans required.New 2-yr. agmts. and $30 act. fees may apply.While supplies last.
LG OPTIMUS U
TM
get one free
when you buy one
for
$
29
99
After $80 mail-in rebates that come as Visa debitcards. Applicable Smartphone Data Plans required.New 2-yr. agmts. and $30 act. fees may apply.While supplies last.
Get the best value in wireless.
Get all the talk and messaging you’d expect. Get all the data youneed. And get something no one else has: The Belief Project
SM
with rewards like faster phone upgrades. Our
$69.99
NationalPlan. It’s quite simply the best value in wireless.
--- __L__---------------____ __ _I_ ____ __ _I_
B u s i n e s s • P o l i t i c s • A r t s • C u l t u r e • N o w Y o u K n o w • R i v e r C i t i e s R e a d e r . c o m
R i v e r C i t i e s ’ R e a d e r
• V o l .1 8 N o .7 7 1 • F e b r u a r y 3 - 1 6 ,2 0 1 1
Continued On Page 9
dispatching system – at a raction o the cost.Instead, we got something entirely dierent,without the knowledge – let alone the consent– o the public.Our supervisors indebted us by bondingor $14 million in equipment costs (includinginterest, but not including the $3-million bond orthe GIS) or 20 years, even though the equipmenthas an estimated lie o seven years at worst, 10years at best. So we will be paying or equipmentor at least 10 years beyond its useul lie.Obviously, we will need to purchase replacementequipment along the way, and odds are high itwill be more costly in the uture. No problem,because there is a “no-cap tax levy” available topay or it.Te consolidation study called or a rst-year capital outlay o $4 million or equipment,not counting the radios (whose omission ishighly suspect when doing a study or dispatchconsolidation). Te county instead bonded orit, along with the $7-million radio purchase(estimated rom a separate 2007 radio study) or20 years.Interestingly, however, there is no accountingin the consolidation study or the $7-million-radio-equipment expense, only the $4 million orall other equipment in the rst year’s equipmentexpenses, even though the equipment bondincluded both radio and other equipment capital
New SECC Means Emergenc r Sctt Cunt Taxpaers
by Kathleen McCarthykm@rcreader.com
F
or the past decade, taxpayers have elthelpless while Congress, along with thehost o bureaucrats behind the scenes,spends our tax dollars like drunken sailors. Well,we may not be able to eect the change we desireat the ederal level, but we absolutely can createsuch change here at home, at the city and county levels.Since 2007, the creation, via Iowa Code28E (new legislation that allows the ormationo intergovernmental agreements to includeemergency-management projects that cede jurisdictional authority to a newly createdbody), o the Scott Emergency CommunicationsCenter (SECC) has ballooned into a massivenew expenditure on the backs o Scott County taxpayers.Trough a series o ever-intrusive policies,including burgeoning agency authority inthe newly established SECC board that isautonomous o county supervisory oversight, anda “no-cap tax levy” as an ongoing and mandatory means to pay or the acility, including its buildingand operations, the SECC is scheduled to openor business in late March 2011.SECC began as a proposal to consolidatethe area’s emergency-dispatch system underone umbrella operation, promising to savetaxpayers $4.6 million over 20 years. In truth,not only is there no savings, but it will costScott County taxpayers $7 million annually, uprom the $4 million per year it would have costi we had ollowed Virginia consultant CACommunications’ “Scott County Emergency Responders Consolidation” study we paid$103,000 or in 2006.What was supposed to be the consolidationo a specic service – emergency dispatching– occupying 6,000 square eet at a cost o $2million plus another $4 million to equip it hasmorphed into a monstrous 28,000-square-ootacility, costing us $14 million or the buildingand other improvements, and another $14 millionor equipment, plus an additional $3 million orthe GIS that provides mapping or emergency management.Tere is no possible justication or the sheermagnitude o a acility such as this serving acounty population o 166,650 in 2009 (up rom158,668 in 2000). Which begs the question: Why?My prediction is that this is one o a string o such acilities that will dot the heartland – ederalFusion Centers – established on the backs o taxpayers in county jurisdictions. In other words,county taxes are paying the lion’s share o a ederalacility under the authority o the Department o Homeland Security.And even though Scott County has receivedapproximately $6.2 million in ederal and stategrants, the cost to taxpayers in qualiying or thesepublic unds has been egregious. We ultimately will have spent $31 million to attract $6.2million in grant unds or SECC . Tis is scalincompetence, especially under current economicconditions. Te new SECC now represents thesecond-largest budget item in the county budget.In 2007, at the time the SECC projectwas voted on by Davenport and Bettendor city councils and the Scott County Board o Supervisors, the public was told the levy wouldbe 53 cents per $1,000. Now, in 2011, the rate isactually 90 cents per $1,000! And this is a “no-captax levy”! Tis is only the beginning, olks. Tenew legislative authority or this levy is oundin 29C o the Iowa Code. You can bet this newtaxing ability will be implemented whenever andwherever possible.In the case o SECC, all three bodies cededauthority or all expenditures to the SECC board,which has the newly created authority to spend itsbudget without oversight by those we elected todo just that. In other words, the two city councilsand county board completely abdicated theirduciary responsibility in this extremely criticalmatter by giving SECC
carte blanche
.Consider that the county’s own commissionedstudy, which under the intergovernmentalagreement that ormed SECC dictated that it beollowed or implementing any dispatch-system-consolidation plan, was partially abandoned inpractice along the way. Te study showed thatwe could have spent $3 million and gotten thesame level o service – a unctioning integrated-
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
River Cities' Reader - Issue #771 - February 3, 2011
664
Reads
0
Readcasts
192
Embed Views
More From This User
Notes
Load more
