Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Sanitation Rates topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Sanitation rates held at 0%; staff points to Amazon cardboard revenue as major offset
Summary
City staff proposed a 0% sanitation-rate increase for FY27, citing a projected fund balance of $8.8 million and $280,500 in expected cardboard-recycling revenue from the Amazon facility; staff will run 3% scenario if council requests.
City staff recommended keeping sanitation rates flat for FY27, arguing the fund's projected balance and non-rate revenues allow the city to avoid a rate increase this year. The pro forma projects an estimated fund balance of $8,816,792 for FY27 and staff said those balances, plus revenues from large corporate accounts, make a 0% increase feasible.
"We generate we're projecting to generate $280,500 just from cardboard from Amazon in terms of the recycling value of the cardboard," the City Manager said, noting that the Amazon facility's recycling value is a large factor keeping the sanitation rate unchanged. Staff also warned that an 11% increase would be needed to meet the 25% reserve goal in a single year, but they offered to model lower, incremental rate scenarios; council asked staff to run a 3% scenario for comparison and staff agreed to provide those numbers for the Aug. 11 workshop.
Staff additionally said they expect a county tipping-fee increase of about 9% next year, but believe combined revenues keep the 0% proposal viable. Next steps: staff will provide a 3% rate scenario and updated pro formas at the August workshop.
