The Los Angeles City Council is considering a measure that would require single family residents to pay for the trash they send to local dumps:
City Hall's top bureaucrat called Friday for the first garbage-collection fee in Los Angeles' history -- a $27 monthly fee to be phased in over 10 years.The proposal put Mayor James Hahn on the defensive and his top staffers immediately denied that he would back such a hike without first consulting with neighborhood councils. They noted that Hahn's
$5.9 billion proposed budget contains no fee hikes but acknowledged he might consider one in the future, particularly if household trash is shipped outside the city rather than using Sunshine Canyon Landfill in
Granada Hills.City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka offered the stunning proposal to the City Council after an ad hoc budget and finance committee asked for the price tag if residents are required to pay the full cost of
trash collection. Currently, there is an $11.60 monthly fee for city-supplied trash bins."We think it's time to recognize the costs of this -- $209 million a year -- and that it is a subsidy that comes directly from the general fund," Fujioka said in an interview, noting that the proposal is in
keeping with new fiscal policies adopted recently by the council with the knowledge of the Mayor's Office.Free trash pickup to the city's 800,000 households in homes and small apartments has been an untouchable policy for decades, but it has been called into question because city officials have not dealt with a structural deficit, estimated to be as much as $300 million.
It might give city councilmembers pause before they consider spending an extra $22 million per year (about $28 per home) to truck their trash out to landfills in the Antelope Valley if it means their
constituents will be footing the bill!
Story via Mayor Sam
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