Will Houston will continue subsidizing private trash pickup with new trash fee?

Mayor John Whitmire is proposing a new $5 monthly trash fee, but has not said whether thousands of Houston homeowners in higher-income neighborhoods will pay it – or keep receiving city subsidies for using private garbage service. 

The issue risks making a politically sensitive proposal even dicier if some residents must pay more for uneven city service while others collect city payments – even if those subsidies are a fraction of the cost of their trash service.

Whitmire on Tuesday proposed his budget for the coming fiscal year, which includes a new fee starting at $5 per month — possibly rising to $25 per month by 2032 — as part of a broader effort to address a nearly $180 million deficit. 

Asked about the program during a press conference announcing his budget, Whitmire said, “That’ll be under discussion when we get through with this merger.” His proposal would move the $117 million Solid Waste Management Department from the strained general fund into the city’s utility system within Houston Public Works. 

Under the city’s “sponsorship” program, Houston reimburses homeowners associations $6 per house each month if they contract with private garbage collection services instead of using the city’s Solid Waste department. The program dates back to the 1970s and was designed in part to save the city money, as it is cheaper for the city to pay the subsidy than to send municipal crews to collect trash. 

The subsidy primarily benefits neighborhoods in higher-income areas such as west Houston, Kingwood, Clear Lake, and the western half of the Inner Loop, where homeowners associations are more common, according to city data. 

Now, with what the Whitmire administration calls an “administrative fee” on the table, residents and neighborhood leaders say they are unsure what comes next.

“Because we aren’t utilizing the service, it would not make sense for those fees to apply to us,” said Kimberly Raphaeli, president of the Kings Point HOA in Kingwood, which uses private trash collection and receives the city subsidy.

Raphaeli said her neighborhood would be unlikely to switch to city trash pickup, even if the subsidy is removed and costs increase.

“We’ve heard the horror of city trash and post-hurricane debris pickup is terrible and some areas not being serviced for weeks at a time,” Raphaeli said. “We have zero problems with ours because theoretically we pay a little bit more for a higher level of service.”

Other HOA board members across the city said the subsidy, while helpful, is only a dent in the cost of private service. If they were to receive any additional fees for services they are not using, they said they would need to factor that into future decisions into if they want to continue using private trash services.

Greg Sergesketter, a member of the Memorial Thicket HOA, said the subsidy doesn’t present an equity issue because his neighborhood is already paying more than $20 each month for private trash collection.

With the $6 subsidy, Sergesketter said, “we’ve already made the decision that it’s worth the $14 to go to private trash.”

A decade ago, when former mayor Sylvester Turner briefly proposed removing the subsidy, Sergesketter and his HOA told city leaders they would add the city collection on top of their existing private trash pickup – but they would be unlikely to do so, he said, if the city begins charging a fee. 

At the same time, residents in neighborhoods that rely on city trash pickup say the proposal raises concerns about fairness.

Lindsay Williams is president of the Greater Eastwood Super Neighborhood, which uses city trash service and would pay the fee. Her neighbors are open to a modest monthly charge if it leads to better service, she said. But continuing to subsidize private trash collection while asking others to pay a new fee, Williams said, could deepen inequities.

“I would be concerned that there are HOAs that are able to get a subsidy for $6 per household, and then there are residents that are going to be paying that fee and don’t know if it’s actually going to solve any of the problems that they are seeing,” Williams said. 

University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said the proposal puts the mayor in a difficult position, balancing financial needs with political risk. City council districts G, E and C – the areas with the most private trash subsidies – also typically are the districts with the highest voter turnout in municipal elections.

Whitmire won all three districts in the 2023 mayoral runoff. The current council members in those districts did not respond to calls for comment Tuesday. 

“Trash is political. Period,” Rottinghaus said. “Taxes related to trash are going to have a significant impact.”

Rottinghaus said the existing subsidy tends to benefit more affluent neighborhoods, raising concerns about fairness if lower-income residents are asked to pay a new fee while those subsidies remain in place. 

“The optics of having two Houstons is troublesome,” Rottinghaus said. “You’ve got one set of residents who can afford to pay for trash collection of their liking and the rest who have to pay the city fee and get the services from the city.”