(From left) Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams, City Communications Director Mischelle Moyer and Treasurer Dan Miller
Harrisburg’s mayor and treasurer clashed on Tuesday over a disagreement on the city’s trash billing process.
City treasurer Dan Miller called the press to city hall to discuss his proposal to implement annual trash billing instead of monthly, which he said will allow the city to better enforce payment.
According to Miller, $15 million in trash bills are owed to Harrisburg, with $13.4 million of that being delinquent. The city has little power to recoup under the current bill procedure, he argued.
Since 2018, Miller said he has proposed an annual trash fee that would be tacked onto residents’ real estate tax invoices. Billing for trash collection that way would add the threat of Dauphin County collections selling the property if fees are not paid, which he said would incentivize payment.
“It’s a great way for us to actually have a bit of a hammer, to make people pay, ‘collect this money and get that $15 million back into the city budget,’” Miller said.
Miller held a press conference on the matter in December 2023 following the administration’s proposal to increase the trash rate as part of last year’s budget. At that time, city officials expressed opposition to Miller’s idea.
On Tuesday, Miller said that he has continued to urge the mayor and council to consider the idea with no success.
Mayor Wanda Williams showed up at Miller’s press conference to ask Miller to shift his focus from her to council, while also expressing her concerns with his proposal.
“Go back to council. Talk to council. They have the legislative power to make decisions,” Williams said. “Don’t put this on the mayor; you have seven members on council. Ask what their feeling is about this.”
Williams did, however, say that she had concerns over the legality of enacting legislation like this after speaking with city Solicitor Neil Grover. She also questioned whether the collection would negatively impact the city’s low-income residents who may not be able to pay and would be at risk of losing their homes.
“I understand the residents owe the city money, but they’re not as fortunate as Mr. Miller is,” she said. “Right now, there are a lot of low-income residents in the city of Harrisburg.”
However, Miller argued that a majority of property owners who are behind on trash bills are business owners and landlords. For those who are low-income residents, Miller suggested a provision that would allow them to qualify for a reduction in fees.
Dan Miller and City Council member Lamont Jones
To Williams’ point about the legality of adding the fee to the tax invoice, Miller said several other municipalities already do it.
In the meantime, Miller said the city is losing about $1 million in uncollected trash fees each year, which he said will continue to negatively impact Harrisburg’s neighborhood services fund.
Miller also proposed enforcing the city’s landlord rental permit, which requires landlords to be current on fees.
Williams said that the city is working to go after delinquent property owners and hired a collections officer several months ago for that purpose.
Council member Lamont Jones also attended the press conference, saying that council was open to considering the proposal, but needed to look at the details of the plan to make sure it wouldn’t harm residents.
“I believe that this is a decent idea, and city council is open to negotiating and working with Mr. Miller to come to a sound solution for this,” Jones said.
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