Are We Getting Ripped Off?

So how much would you pay for eight computers? This was the question I was asking myself after reading this week's local paper (The Tipton Times).

To say the least, I was more than a little shocked to discover how much our small city (about three thousand people live here, including the inmates from the large jail in our town) was spending.

To lease (not even purchase) eight computers, the city spends $1,271.80, per month ($15261.60/year). There was also a fee of $3,100 for email and web filtering subscriptions. Then of course there was another $2,600 for three years of off site backup. All of this bringing the grand total to $20,961.60 for eight computers.

Now granted, the computers will be placed in places no doubt they are needed (City Hall, the Library, and Police Station), but that is a lot of money.

That is a cost of $1907.7 per computer per year, not including the other combined charges of $5,700.

Maybe I am just in sticker shock because I live here, but wasn't there a way to buy a computer outright, much more affordably?

Buying them outright after all, would save money, plus you would own the computers, that way when, down the road, you do have to replace them, you can sell them and get some of your money back. The city would even be able to donate them to the school, or students who don't have a computer at home.

Then, during the years that they didn't have to pay those monthly fees, the city could reinvest the money into the town in other ways.

Perhaps the City did not include information which would have eased our (at least my) troubled minds. Maybe that monthly lease includes repairs on the computers etc, but then again, how much would it actually cost you per service call? Not every computer is going to have a problem every month all at the same time.

I know for a fact there are some very, very reasonably priced people who will work on computers here locally.

I am fairly certain I will probably get some noses out of joint around town by writing something like this, but it just amazes me that we can spend so much money on eight computers, and let's not forget just where those funds come from to start with people.

I suppose the reason that I post this article is to ask other readers what they think. Is this a reasonable yearly amount for eight computers, or should the citizens of this city be a bit out of sorts over the whole thing?