After careful deliberation, Cleveland City Council passed a modified version of Mayor Frank G. Jackson’s trash collection fee proposal. Starting in 2010, City of Cleveland residents will pay an $8.00 per unit monthly fee for trash collection. This fee is set to increase annually by 25 cents, capping at $8.75 per unit in 2014. Most significantly, Council successfully advocated for a 50% discount homestead exemption for seniors 65 years or older and disabled individuals who meet income guidelines.
Council passed this fee with great reluctance and only after intense deliberation and discussion, with the understanding that the City of Cleveland is not immune to the current economic conditions. City Council and the Administration have been working desperately over the past year to plug holes, cut costs, identify savings and somehow balance the budget without resorting to layoffs or service cuts. And we did it. While many cities in Ohio and across the country were laying off workers and raising taxes, Cleveland will finish the year in the black without doing either.
However, the upcoming year comes even greater challenges. Projections for 2010 indicate a $22 million deficit, and once again our goal is to fill this enormous hole in the budget without laying off police and firefighters, cutting services, closing recreation centers or raising taxes. Doing so will be neither easy nor pain-free.
Last month, the Jackson Administration proposed several immediate steps to meet the looming budget crisis. Among these were a two-week furlough for City employees and the imposition of a monthly $9.25 fee for residential garbage collection to go into effect at the beginning of 2010.
The impact a trash collection fee will have on the City budget is significant. Trash collection currently costs the city $27 million a year. The City will generate more than $2.25 million for every dollar charged for waste collection. Clevelanders have never paid a trash collection fee, but it is common in other cities. Council negotiated the proposed fee down to $8.00 per unit, with a 25 cent annual increase capping at $8.75 per unit in 2014, in order bring immediate costs down and to give residents more time to adjust to the fee. In 2014, the fee will be 94 cents less than the average fee charged in comparable Ohio cities today.
To assist those people least able to pay a new fee, Council negotiated a Homestead exemption, which will provide a 50% discount to people 65 years or older or disabled who meet certain income guidelines. Furthermore, if not all units in a multi-family home are occupied or a unit is not occupied for 60 days or more, a waiver of the fee will be available. The exemptions will impact the overall revenue generated by the fee, but it will also make paying easier for the neediest in our City.
No one on Council wanted to take this step. However, the reality is that sacrifices need to be made in order to make ends meet. The City is legally obligated to balance its budget, and these were the best of the bad choices available to us.