Low-income Santa Rosa residents eligible for discount on new garbage bills

Low-income Santa Rosa residents will be able to get a 15 percent discount off higher future residential garbage bills under a program approved by the City Council on Tuesday.

The move is aimed at giving some relief to those who can least afford the steep rate increases taking effect at the beginning of 2018.

That’s when a 15-year contract with the city’s new waste hauler, San Francisco-based Recology, goes into effect. The company’s purchase of the city’s current hauler, Santa Rosa-based North Bay Corp. - owned by The Ratto Group - is set to close Friday.

The new rates, which were approved by the council in August, will soar up to 92 percent for some residents and ?223 percent for some businesses. The most common cart size, 32-gallons, will increase to $26.85 per month, a hike of about ?58 percent from current rates.

The sharpest residential increases will be for some seniors who were enrolled in a discount program that is going away.

There are about ?55,000 residential and commercial accounts in the city for garbage, recycling and yard waste service under the curbside contract. Other services include street sweeping and bulky item pickup.

The contract is the most valuable in city history, worth an estimated ?$735 million over its 15-year life and generating an estimated ?$105 million in fees for the city.

It includes aggressive increases in recycling targets in future years. Recycling rates had slipped under Ratto, according to a city audit. Ratto officials disputed the finding.

The sharp increases in new rates were tough for some council members to stomach, but most felt the city had no choice given the paucity of other qualified hauling bids and the record of corner-cutting by the outgoing operator.

So in November, the council considered how it could ease the pain. It favored a program focused on low-income residents. The council reasoned that seniors who needed the discount would qualify under the low-income program, as well.

Anyone who qualifies for the PG&E CARE program will qualify for enrollment in the Recology discount program. All they need to do is inform the company.

The CARE program offers discounts of 20 percent or more for people with low incomes. A family of four making $49,200 or less in total income, for example, qualifies for the program.

CARE members need only forward proof of enrollment in that program to qualify for the Recology discount.

The most common can size will cost $322.20 per year, giving the 15 percent discount a value of $48.33. The program will cost the city an estimated $658,000 per year.

The city receives a ?14 percent franchise fee from the contract, estimated to generate $6.7 million next year. That’s a nearly $2 million annual increase over what the city had been getting under the current contract.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207.