Garbage bills are nearly doubling in SLO County community: ‘It’s going to be a hardship’
Garbage bills for ratepayers in one San Luis Obipso community will nearly double in April.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve Mission Country Disposal’s application to raise waste removal rates by more than 97%.
“There is no doubt the doubling of garbage rates is a shock to the system, and I fully understand why folks are unhappy,” Supervisor Bruce Gibson said.
However, Gibson noted that the rate increase was approved by an expert and lines up with the service provider’s reported expenses.
“It is, unfortunately, justified,” Gibson said.
The county mailed letters notifying of notice to Los Osos ratepayers about the proposed rate hike 45 days before Tuesday’s board meeting, according to a San Luis Obispo County staff report.
Residents had until the Tuesday meeting to submit letters protesting the increased fees. If 50% plus one ratepayers objected to the increase, it would have been canceled.
To avoid higher bills, 2,704 ratepayers needed to submit letters of protest, according to San Luis Obispo County Solid Waste Division Manager Mladen Bandov.
Only 1,158 ratepayers had submitted letters as of meeting time, allowing the board to vote to pass the raise, the clerk of the board announced at Tuesday’s meeting.
Why will Los Osos ratepayers pay more for garbage collection?
Mission Country Disposal has a contract with SLO County and the Los Osos Community Services District to collect garbage in Los Osos.
The company can apply to the county for rate adjustments every three years.
In October 2021, Mission Country Disposal applied to the county to increase rates by 45.93% for customers in the Los Osos Community Services District, according to the staff report.
After negotiating with SLO County and the Los Osos CSD, Mission Country Disposal submitted another application on Oct. 18 — this time for a base rate increase of 41.87%.
The base rate increase accounts for wage bumps for employees, spikes in insurance and gas costs, purchasing new vehicles, and higher costs for green waste processing, the staff report said.
Mission Country Disposal also imposed two temporary rate increases.
The first is a 7.7% bump to align rates with the Consumer Price Index for 2023, which accounts for inflation, the staff report said.
The second is a 48.04% increase from April to Dec. 31 to make up for lost revenue while Mission Country Disposal negotiated rates with the county and the district, the staff report said.
The three rate increases add up to a total increase of 97.61% for Los Osos ratepayers.
A customer who uses a standard 32-gallon garbage will see their monthly waste removal bill jump from $25.14 to $49.68 on April 1, the staff report said.
On Dec. 31, when the temporary rate increase is set to expire, the monthly rate will lower to $38.41.
Los Osos resident Lindy Owen said at Tuesday’s meeting that she appreciates the work of Mission Country Disposal and understands the need for a base rate increase, but would have preferred that the company raised rates more gradually.
“(A) 97% increase on any utility is shocking. ... It’s going to be a hardship for a number of people,” Owens said. “If we’d gotten it slowly, like a frog in boiling water, it would have been a lot better.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Bandov recommended doing a solid waste collection study to examine if the “cost of service is comparable” to the rates.
How will rate increase affect low-income residents?
From 2013 to 2022, the county was responsible for the franchise agreement with Mission Country Disposal.
Now that the new rates are established, the Los Osos CSD will take over the franchise agreement. It is responsible for implementing a low-income rate program.
According to Proposition 218, the garbage company can’t use payments made by some ratepayers to subsidize rates for others, Bandov said.
Instead, the agency responsible for the franchise agreement with Mission Country Disposal must fund its own program to subsidize rates for low-income customers, according to Bandov.
“Of course, the CSD would like to offer a low-income assistance program,” Los Osos CSD General Manager Ron Munds told The Tribune via email on Thursday. “The CSD will be trying to find alternate sources of revenue but there’s nothing identified at this time.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2023 at 5:53 PM.
