LITTLE ROCK — Residents in unincorporated Pulaski County will see their trash bills jump by nearly $5 per month beginning Oct. 1 after the Pulaski County Quorum Court passed a rate increase Tuesday night with no fuss in a 12-to-1 vote.
Customers' bills will go from $16 to $20.80 per month as the county seeks to head off an estimated $600,000 deficit at the end of the year. This comes amid increases in the county's contract with Waste Management, the company that collects and disposes of the trash, and a spike in third-party billing costs.
This year, Waste Management increased its fee by 50 cents per customer to $12.52 for pickup and disposal of refuse. Also, as of May 31, the sanitation department had paid $187,440 to area water utilities to bill customers for trash pickup, compared with $171,840 each year for 2008 and 2007.
Pulaski County Comptroller Mike Hutchens has estimated that the sanitation fund operatesat a deficit of about $100,000 per month, which has to come from the county general fund.
In 2004, a proposal to raise rates from $9.90 to $13.40 failed after much discussion. Instead, the Quorum Court increased the rate to $11.90. That rate was increased 34 percent in 2005 to the current $16 fee to residents in unincorporated Pulaski County. The county only provides trash service to residential customers.
The one vote against the increase came from Justice of the Peace Doug Reed, who supported a smaller increase. He said about 10,000 of his constituents live in unincorporated Pulaski County and would be affected by the higher bill.
Justice of the Peace Steve Goss said the only problem he had with the increase, when the Quorum Court began discussing it last month, was springing it on unsuspecting residents.
"My concern was that we make sure to give ample notice to residents," he said. "I feel we've done what was necessary to do that."
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 08/26/2009