Elgin City Council votes to stop free leaf collection bags
Elgin City Council members on Wednesday rejected a plan to reduce garbage fees and decided to stop supplying free leaf collection bags to residents next year.
Councilman Toby Shaw proposed reducing garbage fee revenues — projected at $4.67 million in 2014 — by $1 million at the council meeting on Wednesday night. Only Councilmen John Prigge and Terry Gavin supported the idea.
Garbage fees in 2014 will be $13.85 monthly for single-family homes and $10.07 monthly for units in multifamily buildings. Elgin CFO Collen Lavery said she needed to calculate what the proposed reduction would have amounted to for each home.
The city passes the cost of its contract with Waste Management directly to residents.
Gavin made the motion to end the free leaf bag program, which costs the city about $40,000 per year. Councilmembers Anna Moeller and John Steffen cast the only dissenting votes.
The entire leaf pickup program should be revisited because residents aren't happy with it, Councilwoman Tish Powell said.
Shaw initially proposed cutting in half, or by $1 million, the city's natural gas tax revenues. That tax amounts to 5 percent for Nicor customers and 3-cents-per-therm for others, Lavery said.
However, Corporation Counsel William Cogley pointed out the change might not have gone into effect until July 1 because of statute requirements.
That's when Shaw proposed reducing garbage fees instead.
Elgin's 2014 budget is projected at $279.6 million. There's plenty of “wiggle room” for a $1 million revenue reduction, Shaw said.
“I don't think this is an extravagant change,” he said.
City Manager Sean Stegall said the reduction could have been offset by increasing sales tax revenue projections for 2014.
The proposed budget accounts for no increase in those revenues compared to 2013, but that is a conservative estimate, Stegall said. A 4.5 percent increase would yield an extra $1 million, he said.
“It's irresponsible not to give back some of the taxes we've been taking from the public,” Gavin said.
But other council members objected to cutting revenues without a clear plan to counter that with additional revenues or decreased expenses.
Councilwoman Anna Moeller called Shaw's attempt a last-minute political decision. The city council must adopt the 2014 budget at its next meeting Dec. 18. The fiscal year starts Jan. 1.
“We've had this budget in front of us now for over a month,” she said. “If you're serious about (a change), then propose it at the beginning so we can understand how it's going to impact our budget and how it's going to work.”
Mayor David Kaptain agreed. He also said any excess revenues should be used to fund city employees' pensions.