The days of the city of Kokomo not charging a separate fee for trash and recycling collection may soon be coming to an end.
The city is seeking to impose a $10 fee for trash and recycling collection beginning Jan. 1, according to a proposed ordinance set to be considered by the Kokomo City Council. A public hearing and subsequent vote on first reading is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday in the first floor City Council chambers at City Hall, 100 S. Union St.
The fee would be imposed on single-family homes, multifamily dwellings of no more than four units and condominiums and would be included on residents’ wastewater bills. The city of Kokomo typically requires large-scale multifamily units, such as apartments, to contract out trash collection from private companies.
Notably, city residents who are eligible and receive an over 65, blind or disabled or disabled veteran or surviving spouse property tax deduction will be charged a reduced $5 fee for trash and recycling collection, according to the proposed ordinance.
If approved, the fee would end the city’s longstanding practice of not charging a separate fee for trash and recycling pickup. The city currently relies on its property tax revenues to pay for trash and recycling collection.
Not charging a trash collection fee makes Kokomo an anomaly across the state, as the vast majority of municipalities over the last two decades have chosen to charge one as a way to rely less on property tax revenue that is subject to caps of 1% for homestead, 2% for other residential properties and farmland and 3% for commercial properties.
For comparison, residents of the town of Greentown pay $16.20 a month for trash collection, Peru residents pay $15 a month and Russiaville residents pay $13.58 a month.
In a post to its website, the city of Kokomo says the $10 fee won’t cover the full cost of providing trash and recycling collection and other services the Public Maintenance and Refuse department performs, such as limb and leaf pickup, street cleaning and filling in potholes.
The cost to provide such services, the city says, is $23.62 a month per household.
On its website, the city says a homestead assessed at $150,000 pays $759.96 a year in property taxes to the city ($1,5000 in total), and of that amount, $66.02 a year, or $5.50 a month, is distributed to the Public Maintenance and Refuse department.
“While we understand the continued burden of escalating prices, the city is not immune to the impacts of inflation as well,” the city says on its website. “As costs of doing business continue to increase, (at) the cost of $23.62 per month, compared to revenues of only $5.50 per month from residents, hinders our ability to provid(e) the quality of services you expect and deserve.”
The idea of imposing a trash collection fee has been debated and considered in the past.
In 2004, then-Mayor Matt McKillip sought a trash fee in response to an unexpected drop in tax revenues and large budget deficit. Ultimately, one was not imposed.
The issue was brought back to the forefront in the 2009 mayoral election when Republican candidate Scott Kern suggested imposing trash collection fees.
If the trash and recycling fee is approved, it would be the second time in as many years the city has increased fees for services it provides.
In 2022, the Kokomo City Council approved increasing the per 100 gallon rate and the minimum monthly rate the city charges for wastewater services. As a result of the increase, a city resident using 4,000 gallons of water a month now pays $34.32 a month for wastewater compared to $25.62 a month, an increase of nearly $9 a month, or 34%.
The increase in wastewater rate went into effect in 2023 and was the result of the city having to pay $20 million to clean up contamination unexpectedly found on the banks of the Wildcat Creek near the Kokomo Wastewater Treatment Plant likely left decades ago by Continental Steel Corp.
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