So it seems that the city is interested in a “pay as you throw” garbage collection pricing scheme. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the concept. The issue, as with many public policy issues, is the implementation, what the city charges for and how that money is collected. And the let’s be clear about the real dangers here:
• That the city sees this as a way to increase revenue over time, by adding an additional fee without reducing property taxes by the corresponding amount.
• That the city makes waste collection into an enterprise fund much like CMUD, and much like CMUD, there’s a built-in pretty much automatic significant fee (rate) increase every year.
• Or that the city in determining what to do about garbage collection, considers only its costs of providing service and simply ignores, unintentionally or otherwise, the costs that a change in garbage collection pricing impose upon residents. A possible example: A scheme in which you have to pay for special bags to dispose of garbage which you then have to purchase at select outlets, which may or may not be near you and which may or may nor be open when it’s convenient for you to go buy some.
