Falls Church council debates shifting curbside trash from taxes to fee; treasurer warns implementation would be a heavy lift

City staff and the treasurer’s office laid out competing approaches for financing curbside solid‑waste service at a work session where councilmembers voiced concern about equity for multifamily residents and the timing of a move from tax‑funded service to a fee structure.

City Manager Wyatt Shields presented two options. Option 1 would shift single‑family curbside trash out of the general tax rate and into a fee (staff recommended a flat fee rather than a variable weight‑based fee) and, as part of that move, treat composting as a separately offered program. Under staff modeling discussed in the session, the tax‑rate change associated with pulling the current curbside cost into a fee would be roughly 1.5 cents on the real‑estate tax rate — an amount staff said equates to roughly $950,000 in revenue. Shields and staff proposed a written…