LITTLE ROCK — Correction: A Little Rock resident with one trash can and one recycling container is charged $20.99 a month for waste pickup. A proposed rate increase would add $1.03 to that amount, for a total of $22.02. This article incorrectly reported the current and proposed rates. The amounts exclude sales taxes.
A proposed increase in waste disposal fees in Little Rock’s 2013 budget was reduced again Tuesday night in the newest version of the city’s financial plan presented to the Board of Directors.
The new plan lowers the proposed increase to $1.03 per month which would start on Jan. 1.
The original proposal presented in November called for two increases — $2.25 a month in 2013 and then $2 a month in 2014.
A revised proposal last week lowered that rate to a single increase of $1.75 a month in 2013.
The increase would pay for the city’s new recycling program started in April, but would not address the capital needs of the waste disposal department, including the need to replace aging trash trucks.
Several directors called for the potential fee increase to be reduced as low as possible or to hold off on any increase for a year because of other rate increases hitting city residents this year and in the next two or three years, including increases in sewer rates, water rates and the recently passed city sales-tax increase and city millage extension to pay for roads and drainage.
The current rate for waste pickup is $20.90 per month for residents who have one garbage bin and one recycling bin. That rate would increase to $21.93 a month. That does not include sales tax or additional charges if a customer requests additional waste bins.
The new rate proposal would cover only the increased cost of the city’s recycling program, which increased the size of recycling bins and switched the pickup to a once-every-other-week schedule. City staff members said last week that the change has increased recycling by almost 3,000 tons a month.
When the board approved the recycling change in 2011, it voted to absorb the cost into the general fund for a single year and to revisit the increased operational costs in the 2013 budget plan.
“Staff has worked to reduce that rate increase only to what we told the public we would do last year,” said Mayor Mark Stodola. “That is, we absorbed the cost of the recycling program for the first year, but that is a pass-through cost. We contract out that service and we are not using that fee for anything other than the recycling program.”
City Manager Bruce Moore said he was able to reduce the increase by taking some city functions out of the waste department’s budget, including demolition fund costs and weed lot mowing costs.
He said those functions were transferred to other departments under general fund operations and the full cost would be absorbed, meaning residents would not see any change in those services or functions.
Most of the directors were pleased with the overall reduction, but Vice Mayor Dean Kumpuris suggested that staff members may want to consider a very small second increase to plan for the capital needs for the waste disposal department that are on the horizon.
Several directors said they would like staff members to also examine ways to pay back the remainder of the reserve funds the city had to borrow from the waste department to balance several budgets during the recession to avoid layoffs in key city departments such as the police and fire. Moore said the city borrowed a total of about $6.4 million and has paid back about $3.5 million from the general fund.
Other issues the board talked about in the $171 million budget included asking for an explanation of funding for the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and for the Metropolitan Little Rock Alliance, a second regional economic development partnership. Directors also asked whether the city had funded the homeless services programs fully and whether more money would be shifted to the jail agreement with the other area cities and the county to help open an 80-bed portion of the expansion at the Pulaski County jail.
Staff members said they would provide answers within the week to many of the questions and would work on scheduling four public hearings to present the budget to Little Rock residents.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/05/2012