City will revisit idea of breaking out fee for garbage collection from tax bill
Right now, the cost of garbage collection in City of Batavia is just part of each property owner's tax bill.
It doesn't matter if dwelling is four units with four families, or one unit, the fee you pay is based on assessed value. There's no direct correlation between the amount of refuse produced from your property.
Councilman Sam Barone said last night the current system is unfair.
“Presently, it's based on the value of your home, for example," Barone said, "and there are some agencies that don’t pay at all, non-profit organizations, for example do not pay for trash service.”
Barone brought forward a now familiar proposal -- one that hasn't gotten far before -- to break out the cost of garbage collection as a separate fee on tax bills, and modify the fee-based system so its charged on a per-unit basis, including non-profits.
Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian immediately objected to the idea, saying, "You’re going to see a lot of garbage all over the city."
Councilman Frank Ferrando then backed Barone's proposal.
“We should investigate this because this should really bring down costs to taxpayers,” Ferrando said. “What we're doing is we're looking at the cost, a fairer way of distributing the costs. We should look into it."
At which point, Christian said, “There’s no doubt we should look into it. We discussed it at the last budget meeting and agreed that we should discuss it sometime this year because it would definitely bring down the cost to taxpayers, so somehow, some way if we can do it, yes.”
Council President Charlie Mallow said he didn't favor putting a fee on garbage collection for non-profits. "Non-profits do a lot of good for the city," Mallow said.
The decision: City staff will investigate what other municipalities in the state are doing and bring a report back to council.