City Council to debate monthly fee for trash
Expected budget deficit puts the proposal of garbage pickup charge to consideration
Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration is proposing a $1.14 monthly lease charge for residential garbage and recycling bins, a new fee the city says is needed to keep enough containers in stock.
City Council will consider the proposal Wednesday, and at least one member already has come out against the fee, which would start appearing on monthly water bills in July if approved.
The proposed fee would bring in about $421,200 per month, or about $5 million year, for the Solid Waste Management Department.
Houston mayors and councils — including Turner — long have resisted calls for more expensive garbage collection fees here, the only major Texas city without one. As of last year, Austin charged a monthly garbage fee of between $25 and $50, San Antonio charged roughly $20, Dallas charged $27 and Fort Worth charged between $12.50 and $23.
The proposal to charge a lease for bins comes as Houston leaders prepare to confront a ballooning budget gap in the fiscal year that begins July 1, caused by the coronavirus pandemic and tanking oil prices. Turner has estimated the deficit will be between $170 million and $200 million, requiring “thousands” of furloughs and the
deferral of all five police cadet classes.
Council member Amy Peck said the worsening economic picture “is not the right time to add fees.”
“I realize $1.14 per month is not a lot of money for most homeowners, but it is the principle and it is a slippery slope,” Peck said in a news release. “Unemployment is skyrocketing. People are struggling right now with money, health and uncertainty.”
The Solid Waste Management Department says funding for maintaining and replacing bins has not been able to keep up since the city implemented single-source recycling between 2010 and 2015, effectively doubling the number of bins it has throughout the city.
The department serves about 390,000 customers with a total of about 780,000 containers. It says it has devoted about $1 million a year to replacing the containers since 2006.
Harry Hayes, who leads the department, has advocated for a garbage fee for years, across multiple administrations, as a way to enhance service.
Turner has rejected proposals to impose garbage collection fees in the past, most recently during the budget process last year. Then-council member Dwight Boykins proposed a fee that would have charged homeowners between $19 and $27 a month. City council denied the proposal, 16-1.
The mayor shot down a similar collection fee in 2016, when it was suggested as a way to offset a new contract with trash haulers.
Asked why a lease fee was now necessary, after opposition to broader garbage fees, a department spokesperson said: “The container lease is not for garbage service and does not replace any general funding for garbage collection services.”
Turner and Hayes declined comment Tuesday.