Trussville moves closer to implementing garbage fees, council discusses ways to alleviate costs
The following story is from Chris Basinger with our media partners at The Trussville Tribune
TRUSSVILLE, Ala. (Trussville Tribune) — The Trussville City Council voted to accept the terms of an amendment to the city's waste collection agreement that would open the door to directly billing residents for service during a special meeting Tuesday evening. The vote was 4-1 with Councilor Perry Cook opposed.
Though the council voted to allow the mayor to agree to the new terms, the agreement is non-binding and will still have to come before the council one final time on June 10 for final approval before it is enacted.
Ahead of that meeting, the council will hold a workshop on June 5 where members will discuss how the new fees will be implemented and ways the city could alleviate costs for customers.
Under the terms of the amendment, residents would be charged $29.90 a month for garbage and debris collection services, which will be the same service they currently receive. Customers would be billed by Amwaste on a quarterly basis.
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That rate would be subject to an annual price adjustment, which could increase the cost to residents after the first year, based on the consumer price index and fuel costs.
Though participation in municipal garbage collection services would be mandatory for all residents, the state requires an exemption process for citizens whose sole source of income is derived from Social Security or those who have special permits granted by the State Health Department to dispose their own garbage.
In addition to the mandatory exemptions, the council is considering ways to lessen the burden on residents such as expanding who could be eligible for an exemption, covering part of the cost to customers, or attaching a sunset clause to the amendment.
If the council decides to widen exemptions or cover part of the $29.90 monthly cost to customers, the city would have to pay the difference.
The current solid waste agreement with the Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority and Amwaste as well as the new amendment can be viewed below.
During Tuesday's meeting, Mayor Buddy Choat and the council again explained the main drivers behind the change in front of a packed house.
Last year, the city was hit with a significant decline in sales tax revenue, which makes up about two-thirds of its general fund budget.
In FY24, the city budgeted for sales tax revenues of $33.6 million but only took in $30.9 million. This fiscal year, the city budgeted sales tax revenues of $32.4 million, representing a 3% drop.
Choat said the drop was not something the city had anticipated as sales tax revenues had steadily risen over the last five years. He attributed last year's drop to the post-pandemic economy, inflation, and the rise of online shopping.
The city receives a smaller portion of sales tax revenues from online sales, and he added that if all the online purchases in 2024 had been made at a Trussville business instead, the city would have around $4 million more in revenue.
'[Online shopping] is here, it's gonna stay here, so we're trying to find a way to rebuild our bottom line to where if online shopping continues, which it will, then we have to find a way to subsidize some of the things that the city's gonna need,' Choat said
With the decline in revenue, the city passed its latest budget with a deficit spend of almost $1 million, believing that the deficit can be made up and they can end the year with a balanced budget by taking actions such as shifting the cost of garbage services.
'To be quite honest with you, that's not something we were proud of, but there was no way around it,' Choat said while speaking on the budget.
'We had some things that were already happening that we were responsible for that were coming in this year that we had to paid for that were [purchased ordered] out the year before or even the year before that, but when we saw that we started looking at different ways of producing some other revenues for the city.'
Some of those measures the city has taken include doubling the city's lodging tax from 6% to 12% as well as instituting a hiring freeze and limiting overtime for city employees in an effort to balance the budget.
Councilor Ben Short noted that about 80% of the city's spending is on salaries while about 6.8% is on residential waste collection.
The city has paid for residential garbage services since 2002 under an agreement made by Mayor Gene Melton's administration after the city raised its sales tax by 1 cent to help create Trussville City Schools.
Since then, Trussville has grown significantly, rising from 12,000 people in 2002 to about 27,000 now. With that, the city has gone from budgeting around $500,000 annually for resident garbage collection to $2.6 million.
Choat also addressed funding for Trussville City Schools following last year's failed vote to increase property taxes, which would have gone toward funding three major TCS expansion projects.
Without the additional tax revenue to support bonding at a cost of $90 million, the district has prioritized the construction of the C-Wing at Hewitt-Trussville High School, which is currently at 104% capacity.
'Going into the budget year we knew we had a shortfall, we had discussions, and there's a lot of misconceptions out there that this is punishment for the property tax vote not passing–it is not,' Choat said. 'This is not a school funding issue, this is about a general fund issue.'
Multiple residents spoke at the meeting, posing questions about how the garbage fees would be implemented and the possibility of costs rising as well as criticizing the council for purchasing the properties at Glendale Farms and along Service Road.
The city spent around $4 million on Glendale Farms to use as the site of new elementary school and $5 million for property on Service Road to prevent the construction of a proposed 500 unit apartment complex.
The city has since agreed to sell the Service Road property to a developer who plans to build about 190 homes, but was only able to make up $3 million on the sale with the mayor saying that city had to match the price the apartment developer was willing to pay but that selling it for the same amount would be too expensive for a housing developer.
Choat defended the Service Road purchase, saying the city felt an obligation to buy the property in order to keep the apartments out and combat overcrowding in the area.
Though Glendale Farms was initially intended to be used as the site of Trussville's next elementary school, the failure of the recent property tax vote has put those plans on hold and the city is now accepting offers to sell the property.
During the council's discussion on the amendment, Councilor Alan Taylor discussed the rapid development and growth of the city as well as the cost of it.
'We'll get through this, and we're determined to get through it and I certainly love having the downtown, the Edgar's, and the places have versus Sticks N Stuff and a thrift store and all of those things which we could've had which also would've affected our school system,' Taylor said.
Councilor Lisa Bright added that according to the Alabama League of Municipalities that between 2000 and 2020 the City of Trussville grew 83%, saying that the city is now playing catch up with its schools and infrastructure because of how fast the city has grown.
'Yes, we don't want a deficit, and we are gonna get through it, but we can't just stop what we're doing because if we stop we're gonna go backwards, and if we go backwards we're gonna lose families, and if we lose families we're gonna lose our school system,' Bright said.
Councilor Jaime Anderson personally apologized to the public for the city coming in under its projected revenue.
'I would like to personally say, you know, that I'm sorry about that. We really do want to do what's best for Trussville,' Anderson said.
'What I won't apologize for is the decisions that we made to keep apartments out of Trussville and to try our very best to provide for the school that we thought we we're gonna have.'
She added that she would like to see a sunset clause in the waste collection amendment and believes the city is taking every step to end the year with a balanced budget without losing services.
Councilor Perry Cook and Councilor Short also spoke in support of a sunset clause with Short adding that he would like to see some way the city could subsidize payments.
If the amended garbage services agreement is approved by the council at the June 10 meeting, direct billing would likely begin in July or August.
The council will next meet for a workshop on Thursday, June 5 at 5 p.m.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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