Bloomington is proposing a trash fee hike. Here's what it would cost you.

The city of Bloomington plans to hike monthly trash fees by an average of $7.62 per customer to adjust for inflation and a pandemic-induced trash collection increase, but the proposal is getting pushback from some city council members.

The increase planned for 2023 may be the first of several, as the administration of Mayor John Hamilton also is considering raising trash fees by an additional $1 million over three years after next year’s increase. That would push the average customer’s monthly bill another $6.22 per month higher.

While the trash fee hike plan is getting some support on the Bloomington City Council, at least two members questioned the proposal’s timing, as it comes on the heels of the largest property tax revenue boost in at least 20 years and a $16 million local income tax hike.

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The impact of next year’s proposed hike.

• Monthly fees for a 35-gallon toter would rise from the current $6.51 to $9.75 next year, up $3.24 or 50%.

• Monthly fees for a 64-gallon toter would rise from the current $11.61 to $18.25, up $6.64 or 57%.

• Monthly fees for a 96-gallon toter would rise from $18.52 to $31.50, up $12.98 or 70%.

Inflation, more trash

Adam Wason, director of the Bloomington Public Works Department, said the proposed increase is to make up for the cost increases the sanitation department has seen in the past few years.

He said recycling processing fees this year are about $100,000 higher than in 2018. And the volume of trash the department has collected jumped by more than a fifth between 2018 and 2022. That volume increase cost the department $140,000 more in 2021 compared to 2018. Volume is expected to increase again this year.

“We mostly attribute this increase to the shift to at-home work and carry-out dining in relation to COVID-19,” Wason said.

In addition, he said the department is dealing with unusually high price increases for everything from diesel fuel to cleaning supplies and gloves. From 2020 to 2021, the department saw its fuel costs rise $25,000. Wason projected the increase for this year would be closer to $100,000.

“It’s time to better align the revenues of the sanitation division through an increase to the fees charged so that the actual costs of providing the service are … more in alignment,” Wason told the city council last week.

Council president: 'Not at all happy about it'

However, City Council President Susan Sandberg, a likely mayoral challenger of Hamilton in the May Democratic primary, said the city is getting $16 million more in income taxes next year, thanks to an income tax hike. The mayor pushed for the hike in part to pay for essential city services, but Sandberg said he now also wants to increase a user fee for an essential service.

“I'm not at all happy about it,” Sandberg said. “It looks like we’re shirking our responsibility.”

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While the rationale for the increase makes sense, she said, it should have been covered by part of the additional income tax dollars.

The city next year also is getting $2.2 million more in property taxes than this year. The state determined that Indiana cities next year would get a 5% increase in property tax collections, the largest increase in at least 20 years.

Council member Ron Smith said he was “stunned” when he heard about the proposed trash fee increase, primarily because it came on the heels of the income tax hike and at a time when households are dealing with high inflation.

The city council is expected to make a decision on the increase in October, when it is scheduled to adopt next year's budget.

Trash pickup fees in Indiana communities vary widely, but comparisons generally are difficult. Some communities offer the service for no additional charge while others require residents to contract with a private trash hauler. Comparisons between cities also are skewed because of their tax base, income tax rates and the varied other revenue streams including user fees.

Monthly trash pickup fees in some other Indiana cities:

• Columbus: At least $65.

• Muncie: Included in property tax.

• South Bend: $13.98 ($8.39 for seniors.)

• Terre Haute: $11.

• West Lafayette: At least $75.

In Martinsville, the city council in October rejected a proposed hike from $7.50 per month to $15, according to the Martinsville Reporter-Times, a sister publication of The Herald-Times. That rejection left the sanitation department with a projected $600,000 shortfall for this year.

A second trash fee increase coming?

The Bloomington sanitation department, too, would operate with a shortfall if it were not for a $1 million subsidy the department gets annually from the city’s general fund, the main operating fund that also pays for such services as police and fire protection.

This subsidy has been a thorn in the side of some council members and they have in prior years proposed eliminating the subsidy — though that likely would mean an additional trash fee increase.

Theoretically, the sanitation department also could cut spending by $1 million, though not without a deterioration of services, such as a reduction in the frequency of recycling pickup, which, Wason said, is a non-starter.

That leaves a subsidy-replacement trash fee increase. Wason said the details, including the timing and extent, will have to be negotiated with the council, though members have floated the idea of a three-year implementation of the hike from 2024 to 2026.

The 13,400 local households who pay the fee, would, on average, have to pay another $6.22 per month, or about $75 per year — though that excludes any inflationary increases the sanitation department may request.

A $6.22 per month increase means, at the low end, customers would pay about $16 per month, or $192 a year, versus $6.51 per month or $78.12 per year now. At the high end, the fees could go to near $40 per month or $480 per year, compared to about $222 this year.

Wason emphasized that residents with the smallest toters likely would see a smaller-than-average increase, as the city wants to continue to incentivize people producing less trash. About half of the department’s customers have the smallest toters.

Council member Matt Flaherty commended Wason on the proposal to eliminate the general fund subsidy. Flaherty said he and Hamilton had a discussion a while ago in which both agreed the $1 million subsidy perpetuated existing inequities that favored wealthier and whiter homeowners to the detriment of poorer, non-white people who live in multifamily apartments and whose trash is picked up by businesses contracted by the apartment owner — not by the city.

Flaherty said in a council meeting last week the subsidy provides an unfair advantage to homeowners. Everyone pays into the general fund, but the subsidy helps only homeowners and gives them a break on the trash pickup costs, he said.

Compounding the inequities, he said, is that homeowners tend to skew wealthier and whiter than the rest of the population.

“The existing inequity … is invisible, but it doesn’t make it any less real,” Flaherty said.

Flaherty couldn’t be reached for this story.

Andrew Krebbs, a spokesman for Hamilton, said via email that subsidy elimination “would shift costs to residents actually using the service.”

'Divisive'

However, Sandberg and Smith said they’re not buying the rationale, with Sandberg calling Flaherty’s argument “counterproductive” and Smith calling it “divisive.”

Sandberg and Smith said the general funds for the city and the parks departments support lots of services not everyone uses, including parks and golf courses, but that doesn’t mean those subsidies should be eliminated.

“It’s totally arbitrary they picked (the trash subsidy),” Smith said. “I don’t have a good explanation for why they did.”

Sandberg said for example, she does not play golf, but she has friends who do and she does not begrudge them their opportunity to use the local golf course for a lower fee thanks to a subsidy from the parks department’s general fund. She said begrudging people that subsidy would be akin to complaining about student loan forgiveness.

The city’s Cascades Golf Course usually gets an annual subsidy of about $90,000 from the parks department, but it has not needed one in the last two years because of increased interest in golf during the pandemic, said Aaron Craig, the city’s golf facilities manager.

Sandberg said complaining about a subsidy for services that are used only by some people — whether trash pickup, sidewalk or road repair — runs counter to what it means to be part of a community.

“I pay my taxes for a lot of things … for the greater good, whether it benefits me or not,” she said.

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Krebbs also said the trash subsidy differs from subsidies for parks and golf courses because of its connection to the city's Climate Action Plan.

“Shifting more of the actual costs of waste removal to residents using the service will also encourage a lower production of non-recyclable waste,” Krebbs said. “Households who recycle, donate/repurpose, and compost organic waste will pay less. They will be able to take advantage of the city's smaller receptacles.”

Sandberg also questioned what would happen with the $1 million that would no longer go to the sanitation department and instead would remain in the city’s general fund.

Krebbs said the money would be used for “other priority areas as identified in the budget process.”

Leaf collection ending?

Wason said the city also plans to eliminate curbside vacuum leaf collection, in part because of its high dollar and environmental costs.

"Residents are encouraged to do the most ecologically beneficial thing by mulching or composting the leaves on site," he said. "We are still proposing to continue our yard waste collection program through the Sanitation Division and expect an increase in the volumes of bagged collection during the traditional leafing season. Additionally, we highly recommend for ease and convenience that residents purchase a yard waste cart through the Sanitation Division, which will be collected as part of the yard waste routes."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Proposed trash fee hike in Bloomington to cover new collection costs