Los Angeles residents, brace yourselves: That monthly trash bill is about to get ugly. The City Council just greenlit a steep increase in trash hauling fees as officials scramble to plug a $1 billion budget shortfall. What was once $36.32 a month for a single-family home will surge to $55.95 when the fees go into effect, most likely in November.
For a city where everything feels like a markup waiting to happen, this one hits close to home. Most Angelenos haven’t seen a substantive increase in trash fees since 2008, but now the city says it’s time for trash collection to stand on its own and to stop bleeding the general fund — in other words, time for residents to pay the full freight.
RECOMMENDED: It’s about to cost a lot more to park in Los Angeles—here’s what you need to know
Naturally, people are fuming. How is it fair that basic services that you can’t opt out of are suddenly going to hit your wallet like a surprise tax? Property owners and renters alike are asking what’s changing for their money: Will collection be more frequent? Or quieter? Will bins magically expand?
To be fair, part of the city’s reasoning is rooted in real pressures: labor and equipment costs are up, compliance with state recycling and organics laws demands more money and the rate of return from recyclables has collapsed in recent years. And subsidizing the city's trash program at $500,000 a day is no longer tenable. But those justifications ring hollow if the burden lands squarely on households already stretched thin.
Low-income customers who qualify for the EZ-SAVE or Lifeline programs will get a reduction, however. But for others just living month to month or surviving on tight budgets, the jump may force hard choices: cut back elsewhere, absorb the hit or complain to a system that has long been pretty tight-lipped about how these numbers were determined.
The trash fee hike isn’t a done deal just yet. It still needs Mayor Karen Bass's signature before it becomes official; once signed by the mayor, the ordinance will go into effect after 30 days. That means the higher rates can’t kick in until at least mid-November. That’s a problem, since the city budget was written assuming the new fees would start October 1. Every day of delay now costs Los Angeles roughly $500,000, and because the council’s vote wasn’t unanimous, the ordinance had to come back for a second reading this week, a bureaucratic speed bump with a $3.5 million price tag. The mayor’s office says she’ll sign it the moment it hits her desk.