Treasurer Dan Miller at a press conference on Monday in city hall
A Harrisburg official is speaking out against a proposed trash bill hike, while the city is defending its plan.
On Monday morning, Treasurer Dan Miller held a press conference to voice his opposition to the city administration’s proposal to raise trash rates as part of its next municipal budget.
In late November, Mayor Wanda Williams proposed her 2024 spending plan, which includes a $3.23 monthly increase in residents’ trash bills. If approved by city council, the rate for trash and recycling collection would go from $32.34 to $35.57 per month.
However, Miller, the elected treasurer, said that he believes that there is a different way to increase revenue collected from the city’s trash bills, without raising rates.
According to Miller, Harrisburg is not receiving millions of dollars due to delinquent trash bills. Under his proposal, the city would more aggressively seek payment from those who already owe money, not raise sanitation rates generally.
“This is completely unnecessary,” he said of the proposed rate hike. “We have over $12 million of uncollected trash receivables outstanding. I think we have a solution to that, and I think it would be much better for us to collect the outstanding ones than to increase the trash [rates].”
Miller attributes the delinquency to Harrisburg not having a mechanism to enforce payment. In 2014, a new entity, Capital Region Water, assumed control of the city’s water and sewer system as part of the city’s financial recovery plan. With that, Harrisburg no longer had the power to shut off water to delinquent properties, he said.
Currently, around $8 million of the $12.2 million in uncollected trash bills comes from 5,966 residential accounts, out of a total of 14,420. Around $4.1 million comes from commercial accounts, according to information provided by the city.
Miller, who has brought his proposal to council previously, wants to add the trash fee to the annual property tax bill, which would make it an annual, lump-sum payment and, he argues, would lead to greater compliance. He also suggested that Harrisburg enforce the city code regarding its rental permit program, which states that residential rental applications should not be approved until all overdue fees are paid to the city.
However, according to Harrisburg Business Administrator Dan Hartman, the proposed rate increase isn’t just about recouping money, but also about creating a longer-term solution to offset the continuously rising costs associated with trash collection.
“As costs go up, you’re never going to be able to use all of that debt in the long run to cover what is a growing structural deficit,” Hartman said.
In 2023, tipping fees, which the city pays to Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA) to dispose of its trash, went up by 7.74% and, for 2024, they will increase by 3.24%, Hartman said. Additionally, expenses like vehicle costs, wage increases and fuel prices have gone up.
The last time Harrisburg raised its trash bill was in 2006.
“Nobody ever wants to sit here and ever have to raise rates,” Hartman said. “But keep in mind, it’s a utility—dollars-in, dollars-out business. It’s not something we want to do, but it’s something, on the business side of things, you just have to do.”
With the rate hike, the city calculated that it would get an additional $559,000 in the coming year, if all residential accounts pay, according to Matt Maisel, city communications director. However, the city’s budget office estimates that revenue will be closer to $466,231, assuming a conservative collection rate of 83%. The current trash collection rate is 90%.
Other ways of raising revenue may be proposed in the coming months, as the city renegotiates intergovernmental cooperation agreements with Steelton, Penbrook and Paxtang to provide trash collection. They may also consider raising commercial trash rates, he said.
To Miller’s suggestion about enforcing the city’s law around residential rental applications, Hartman said that the city would not be in favor of that, explaining that it may cause rental properties to close down, displacing tenants, or begin to operate illegally.
And while Miller argued that the city currently isn’t enforcing payment of the trash fee, Hartman said that Harrisburg actually has been going after delinquent properties recently.
In October, the city’s Law Bureau reached a full complement of staff, adding a lien attorney and lien specialist, who have started by working with those who owe over $10,000 in delinquent bills. So far, they have secured $940,835, according to the city, and are projected to hit $1.2 million by the of the year.
“Money is flowing in from these delinquent trash bills,” Hartman said. “It’s a work in progress.”
Hartman added that the city has been open to conversations around changing the trash billing structure, but that the decision is ultimately up to council.
“You need council, and getting them to say ‘yes’ is where, arguably, Treasurer Miller needs to go,” Hartman said. “That’s where the energy should be focused.”
At its Dec. 13 meeting, council discussed the proposed rate increase.
“The actual rate for collection hasn’t increased since 2006, while our tipping fees continue to increase,” council member Westburn Majors said. “I mean, $3 and change a month for something that hasn’t increased in 17 years, as long as it’s covering our expenses, I think we have enough justification to show for the work that is being done by our public works folks.”
Council is slated to vote on the trash bill hike and the 2024 general fund budget at its Dec. 19 legislative session.
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