Chicago considers residential trash pickup fee

Seeking to close a 2016 budget shortfall, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has prepared a plan that would require home owners in the city to pay $9.50 per month for residential trash pickup. According to a Reuters article, the fee would be the first of its kind in Chicago.

The Reuters article says the monthly fee would be “tucked in the water bills” of the city’s 600,000-plus home owners, and if enacted Jan. 1, 2015, it would “raise nearly $70 million toward a $745 million budget shortfall.”

The article says the $9.50 per month is less than what residents in many of the city’s suburbs pay, and also less than what residents of Los Angeles, Atlanta or Seattle pay each month. It lists New York City and Boston as among the only major cities left with no monthly residential garbage fee.

The new Chicago garbage fee, if passed, will reportedly apply to water bill recipients who live in single-family homes and two-, three- and four-unit residences. Residents who live in larger buildings contract for private collection service.