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Cops for Everyone--Trash Fees for a Few |
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Coffin’s Corner
By David Coffin
Eleven members of the city council including our councilman voted to raise monthly trash fees for single family residences from $26 per homeowner to $36.32 which evaluates to $435.84 a year.
Renters in apartments with four or less units will also have to their monthly trash fees increased from $17.16 to $24.33 which comes to $291.96 a year.
The trash fee is not applicable to larger condo and apartment complexes that are served by commercial trash haulers which effectively exempts 615,413 city residents from paying fees that the council says are necessary to help the city “balance the city budget” leaving homeowners and renters in very small apartment complexes to shoulder the burden.
In a Los Angeles Times article, Councilman Greig Smith told dozens of opponents of the trash fee that “You’ve been getting a deal for 50 years from this city.”
Smith did not elaborate and say what city department or charity was providing funds to offset the so-called real costs to collect trash.
The Department of Sanitation claims to serve 750,000 residents. At $26 per resident, the city’s annual billing is roughly $1 billion dollars. And they’re only picking up half of the city’s trash and recyclables.
The trash tax fee will come to a final second vote next week.
Can anyone explain why homeowner’s trash is more expensive to haul away than a person living in a four unit apartment and more importantly, why large apartment and condo complexes should continue to be exempt from having to pay for city services?
I’d like to hear from the council office to explain that!
(David Coffin is a writer and a contributor to CityWatch. He is an education activist and a member of the Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa del Rey. Read more of Coffin’s views at www.westchesterparents.org ) ◘
CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 64
Pub: August 8, 2008
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