12-02-2025
'Sometimes you have to man up and pay the d*** bill.'
The Jacksonville City Council voted 12-7 to increase fees for residential garbage and recycling pickups for the first time since 2010.
While speaking to Jacksonville's Morning News, City Councilman Matt Carlucci, who introduced the bill, said, 'I don't take any joy in raising anybody's fees but Jacksonville had a crisis with our Solid Waste Fund, it was bankrupt. We had to borrow money from our general fund, I had to do something,'
The trash fee increase will be phased in throughout a 3-year period from $12.65 a month to $32 a month by 2027. 'We have a council member named Chris Miller, he picked out the number 27 dollars because that will stop the bleeding, then we will go to 29 then to 32, and it was apparent that everybody on the council felt that way as well,' Carlucci said.
The increase in trash fees will not apply to those living in apartment complexes or condos. 'It is only going to affect the people who got a property tax notice on their residents in past years,' Carlucci noted.
Council members also approved a Companion Bill that allows households earning up to 150% of the federal poverty level to apply for assistance with documentation to stay at the current trash rate.
Carlucci added that the trash increase will help pay off the general fund loan. 'All those dollars can go back to the general fund for road repairs, parks, and employee raises. When you start cutting the budget, you are taking away from somebody else and sometimes you just have to man up and pay the d*** bill.'
You can listen to the full interview with Matt Carlucci below.
