Garbage Gets Expensive

By Margaret Lyons in News on Aug 6, 2004 2:44PM

Alderman Isaac Carothers (29th) has made the controversial and unlikely recommendation that Chicagoans should start paying a trash collection fee. In the face of a $220 million budget gap, Carothers says that we need to start shelling out.

Currently, trash collection from single-family homes and small apartment buildings costs $160 million annually, not including "cost of buying, repairing and fueling equipment or duty disability and workers compensation claims." Chicago has a self-imposed cap on property taxes, so even if we maxed out, it would still only raise another $18 million. According to Carothers, "'We need something more far-reaching to help us out of a difficult situation...it's a luxury we can no longer afford. The free ride is over."

Chicagoist hates when people say stuff like that. Because they're almost always right, but who wants free rides to stop? Not us. Free rides rule. North Side Aldermen Patrick O'Connor (40th) and Bernard Stone (50th) agree. Caching! O'Connor says that trash collection, snow plowing, and street cleaning are "basic services that people believe are part of their tax bill." Wait. Are they not part of our tax bill? It's not like, an actual free ride, right, it's just a too-cheap one? Anyone?

The fee is unlikely to become a reality, so don't worry too much. Stone added "People would be very unhappy to say the least. You can't keep kicking people in the rear." Amen, brother.