Closer look at trash fees

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Terre Haute residents could pay a $9 fee for trash pickup under a suggestion offered by Mayor Duke Bennett during a public hearing Monday.

Bennett said the proposal is one being considered to help the state deal with the loss of $6 million of revenue through property tax caps. He said trash collection, which is performed through a contract with Republic Waste Services, is one of the three most expensive parts of the city’s budget.

“We’re kind of at a point in our history of the city of finding ways to come up with a balanced budget, since we’ve lost millions and millions of dollars in revenue,” Bennett said.

News 10 contacted other Indiana cities to find out whether they charge residents for trash pickup.

Bloomington officials said their city charges residents $2 per container of garbage. Evansville officials said their city charges residents $12.15 each month, though they said a new contract will lower that cost to $8.50. West Lafayette officials said their city charges $9 each month, while Lafayette does not charge a fee.

Still, some residents said they worried whether families with low incomes could afford to spend $9 each month on garbage service.

“I look for a lot of people to take it out and start dumping like they used to do 20, 30 years ago,” said Floyd Drake, who has lived in Terre Haute for 20 years. “People on fixed incomes, they (aren’t) going to have that extra $9 every month.”

Mayor Bennett, however, said that those who failed to pay a trash fee would not be cut off from trash pickup but would be fined instead. Bennett also said that, if the city required the full $9 fee, no money from property taxes would be spent on the trash pick-up contract.