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Trash fee - an idea city can't refuse?

Hey, Philly! You ready to cough up five bucks a week for trash collection? Rina Cutler, deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, said yesterday that the Streets Department is seriously considering a weekly trash fee of about $5 per household in light of the budget crisis.

Hey, Philly! You ready to cough up five bucks a week for trash collection?

Rina Cutler, deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, said yesterday that the Streets Department is seriously considering a weekly trash fee of about $5 per household in light of the budget crisis.

The fees - estimated to raise between $85 million and $105 million annually - would maintain weekly trash and recycling collections, and no sanitation workers would lose their jobs, Cutler said. But if the city doesn't start charging, the department may have to slash jobs and cut back collections to two or three times a month.

"When you start to look at what the implications are of 20 and 30 percent cuts . . . $5 per week per household seems like a reasonable cost to not decimate services that people are looking to the city to provide," Cutler said at a public PhillyStat budget session.

Facing a $1 billion gap in the city's five-year financial plan, Mayor Nutter has asked every city department to report on how 10-, 20- or 30-percent budget cuts would impact services. That data is being used in a public review process, before Nutter unveils his budget on March 19.

Cutler said that 20 or 30 percent could not be cut from Streets without cutting trash collections. Sanitation costs make up the bulk of the department's budget, she said.

Many cities charge a trash fee, including San Francisco, Seattle and Kansas City. Cutler said that they were researching practices in those locations. Nutter stressed that this was still just an idea being considered.

"The service-fee idea needs a lot of work and study and analysis," Nutter said, "although it is the kind of project that exists in other cities all across America. So, Philadelphia would not be creating something out of whole cloth here."

If a trash fee is included in the next budget, it would likely not go into effect until April 2010, Cutler said. Details like how the bill would be paid - perhaps on your water bill, property tax bill or through a seperate billing process - are still being worked out.

Another initiative being considered is an incentive program for recycling, perhaps offering coupons to neighborhoods with high recycling rates. Cutler said that she hoped that that would offset trash costs for residents and help with a long-term goal of reducing landfill expenses.

Not all Philadelphians liked the sound of a trash fee yesterday.

"I know that Philadelphia is in a bad, bad crisis," said Mary Jean Hazell, president of the Somerton Civic Association. "And I've backed the mayor on almost everything he's done. But to charge people more money, that's not the answer.

"Everyone is suffering." *