Taxes: I’m thinking about the possibility of the city imposing an occupation tax on cell phone use. I cringe at the thought of a new tax. We paid an occupation tax on our landline of $0.54 for January. It is not clear how the occupation tax on our cell phone would compare. More cell phone use has resulted in less income from landline occupation tax. A new tax will make using a cell phone more expensive. Income produced from an occupation tax on cell phones will not lessen the taxes we collect from other revenue streams. It looks like between 2005 and 2006 income from the occupation tax on landlines was down $20,132. The City collected $113,111 in 2005 but only $92,979 in 2006 from the occupation tax on landlines. What are your thoughts about the possibility of an occupation tax on cell phone use? Let me hear from you npward3@gmail.com

Personal Responsibility: One point I took home from the recycling seminar on Thursday was, I don’t have to wait for the city, county, state or federal governments to do something before I start recycling. It’s true, it would be easier to recycle if North Platte offered curbside recycling. We do have ally side recycling of newspaper. Nothing stops me from taking the cans, boxes and plastic to the recycling center or to one of the drop off bins. It’s so much easier to blame the city, county state or federal government for my inability to recycle. Our ally has one of those yellow-topped cans for recycling newspapers. It is usually at least half-full. Replace recycling with anything else and it is all settled: “If only the city, county, state or federal government would….”

For more information on recycling contact Keep North Platte and Lincoln Count Beautiful at www.keepnorthplattebeautiful.org