We’ve been covering the city’s budget crisis, and some ideas for how to fix it. Some have suggested holding off on hiring more cops, others say we should hike up taxes.
But councilmen Ann Margolin is suggesting the city save some money by no longer printing those thick information packets that are distributed at council meetings. All that paper and ink costs taxpayers about $148,000 a year—a cost that could be avoided by taking it all online.
Longtime Dallas writer Pete Oppel pointed out on his blog that a big reason the city still prints everything is because of Margolin’s predecessor, Mitchell Rasansky. According to Oppel, Rasansky was so opposed to working on a computer that he didn’t even have one in his council office.
Apparently, the city has wanted to stop printing these packets for about six years—and now that a more technically savvy Margolin has replaced Rasansky, it might actually happen.
Not only would going online save taxpayers’ money, it also just makes plain good sense in the 21st Century—and saving all that paper waste is the eco-friendly thing to do.
