Proposed garbage rate increase is more about dollars than cents

Rates could rise to over $1,000 a year for many residential customers

Yesterday I used this space to discuss the City of Davis’ proposed dramatic increase in our solid waste rates.

I did this, of course, in my usual fair and impartial and completely calm manner.

Yet, in the 24 hours since that column ran, Fox News has not attacked me for my viewpoint and ICE has not barged through my front door, all of which means I must be doing something wrong.

The City proposes five straight annual raises in garbage rates, starting in February 2026 with a 15 percent whopper, followed by 6.5 percent in 2027, 6.5 percent in 2028, 6.5 percent in 2029 and 3 percent in 2030.

Now, if you add all those percentages together you come up with an overall rate increase of 37.5 percent, but it’s actually worse than that.

As I learned in Miss Montgomery’s fifth grade class at West Davis Elementary, you have to compound all those percentages and build them atop one another.

When done properly, you’ll learn that the actual increase is a much more painful 43.07 percent.

In simple dollars and cents, servicing that large 96-gallon garbage can in 2025 costs you $58.80 a month. Unless there’s a garbage rebellion, the rate in 2030 will be $84.13. For the math geniuses out there, that comes to $1,009.56 a year, just for garbage.

And that doesn’t include the wear and tear on your tennis shoes from lugging that can out to the street every single week of the year.

That may seem relatively insignificant to the folks living on the west side of the tracks, but it’s not chump change in my neighborhood where we’re still mourning the demise of the Dollar Tree.

The ray of good news in all this is that the City can’t raise these rates willy nilly. Or even Willie Nelson.

No, Proposition 218, which passed with 100 percent of the vote nearly 30 years ago, says they have to hold a hearing.

According to the literature provided by the City, this constitutional amendment, “ensures transparency and accountability by requiring that revenue from such a fee shall not exceed the funds required to provide the property-related service (such as solid waste collection), that the fee imposed on any parcel shall not exceed the proportional cost of the service attributable to that parcel and that the fee shall not be used to fund unrelated programs.”

Translation: The City Council cannot use the money to pay for a team-building excursion to Waikiki to discuss garbage rate increases.

Furthermore, Proposition 218 requires that “local agencies must notify affected property owners of any proposed new fee or rate increases, provide a formal opportunity to protest and hold a public hearing.”

At the public hearing, “the City Council will hear and consider all objections or protests to the proposed solid waste increases.”

That hearing is scheduled for January 6 - certainly an interesting date in United States history - which means if any protesters get unruly, Donald Trump will issue them a blanket pardon and appoint some of them to high level jobs in his administration.

Now here’s where things get dicey.

Affected property owners or their tenants may submit a written protest against the proposed solid waste rate increases.

And, more importantly, the City Council can’t simply read the letters, nod their heads and go about their business.

Indeed, “A majority protest against the proposed solid waste rate increases will exist if at the end of the public hearing there are written protests submitted by a majority of the customers subject to the proposed solid waste rate increases. The City Council cannot adopt the proposed waste rate increases if a majority protest exists.”

And wouldn’t it be great if every law, including executive orders from the Oval Office, could be vetoed by the people most affected?

Reach me at bobdunning@thewaryone.com