The Gainesville City Commission voted Thursday to raise the franchise fee it gets from solid waste contractors while pausing any changes to residential fees, allowing to bring back other options.  

Public Works has seen the cost for residential garbage pickup increase since 2019, from $4.5 million to $6.8 million annually. The cost to use Alachua County’s disposal and recycling have also increased, costing $660,000 extra from that same time period.  

The city has increased the cost residents pay for their trash bins by 5% every other year, but Public Works Director Brian Singleton said that increases haven’t been a full market rate adjustment.  

For the last couple of years, the city has operated at a loss for residential garbage pickup and used fund balance to cover, but Singleton said the fund balance will be gone soon as the city pays around $3 million more for the service than in 2019.  

Staff proposed a 25% increase to the residential rate for trash bins. The prices would change as follows:  

• Large bins from $40.75 to $50.94 per month 

• Medium bins from $32.75 to $40.94 per month 

• Small bins from $26.50 to $33.13 per month 

• Mini bins from $20.50 to $25.63 per month 

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said the staff recommendation would be a large jump in a single year. He said he hoped to have more options about how the city could fund the residential collection, which also sends money to road improvements.  

City Manager Cynthia Curry said the commission could wait to give different scenarios, but she said the city must find a way to not keep pulling so much money from the fund balance.  

She recommended continuing with the 5% increase in the franchise fee while changing the residential trash bin fee no later than January.  

Eastman made that motion, and it passed unanimously.  

Commissioner Ed Book followed up with a motion that the city run a campaign that encourages homes to evaluate, and hopefully downsize, their bin size. He said if residents know a potential cost increase is coming, it might encourage more recycling and other cuts that allow downsized bins.  

That motion also passed unanimously.  

The franchise fee increase will bring in around $730,000 in additional revenue while the 25% residential increase would net $2.5 million to potentially get the service out of the negatives.