JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville city council member is on a mission to build consensus around a plan to help the city pay for its trash collection, and that may involve some edits to his original plan.
The initial proposal would have raised Jacksonville’s trash fee from $12.65 a month to $30.40 a month starting next year.
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During an open meeting Thursday held by the bill’s sponsor Matt Carlucci (R-Group 4 At-Large), the councilman floated two alternatives.
One would phase in the increase over a two-year span, and the other would gradually raise the fee over three years.
“I want to build a consensus with my colleagues, and I want it to be something that will be accepted by the community in a consensus sort of a way,” said Carlucci.
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While the longer phase-in options would not reduce the debt the city has racked up as quickly as the one-time increase, both would still result in the loan being ten times less than the half-billion-dollar price tag auditors project the city will have to pay by 2031 if nothing is done.
“There’s not a better way to do this than this way. If there was, I would be doing that instead of this. And I think our citizens, after my tour around town in community meetings, are kind of wondering why we’re not paying our damn bill,” said Carlucci.
Councilmember Will Lahnen (R-District 3) was the only other member to attend the meeting.
He left in agreement that the trash fee issue needs to be addressed one way or another.
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“So, I look forward to continuing the conversation and see if we can land in a place that is responsible both for our city’s financials in the future, as well as for our residents,” said Lahnen.
Carlucci‘s bill will come up in its first committee next week.
From there, it will have three more stops before it will be ready for a final vote.
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