For the first time since Barack Obama was president, the fee charged to Jacksonville residents for curbside trash hauling is headed for an increase under action by the City Council on Feb. 11.
Council voted 12-7 on a stepped-in increase in the solid waste fee, which will rise from $12.65 per month to $27 this year, $29.50 in 2026 and $32 in 2027. The increases in 2026 and 2027 would each be subject to separate Council votes under the legislation for the fee, Ordinance 2025-0001.
Yes votes came from Council President Randy White and members Ken Amaro, Raul Arias, Michael Boylan, Joe Carlucci, Matt Carlucci, Tyrona Clark-Murray, Ju’Coby Pittman, Rahman Johnson, Will Lahnen, Chris Miller and Jimmy Peluso.
Voting no were Vice President Kevin Carrico and members Rory Diamond, Terrance Freeman, Nick Howland, Reggie Gaffney Jr., Mike Gay and Ron Salem.
Council member Matt Carlucci, who introduced the ordinance, said he was pleased a majority of his colleagues took action on an issue that previous Councils opted not to address.
Although the actual cost of service rose steadily after the $12.65 fee was adopted in 2010, Councils did not adjust the fee accordingly but instead chose to subsidize the service with a “loan” of tax dollars from the city general fund.
The result was a growing obligation to pay back the subsidization, for which the city was legally barred from using general fund revenue to cover. The annual cost of the “loan,” according to Council auditors, had grown from $3 million in 2017 to about $36 million in 2024 and was on track to surpass $500 million by 2031.
“I don’t like to raise fees or people’s taxes for any reason, but I do take great satisfaction in solving an issue of this proportion for our city budget,” Matt Carlucci said. “If this had not passed, the city budget would have had a hard time hiring more police officers, paying their raises ... and a long list of other things we’re responsible to do. So sometimes you just have to do what you have to do and pay the bills.”
Companion bill
Council members also approved companion legislation, Ordinance 2025-0002, which allows households earning up to 150% of the federal poverty level to seek an exemption that freezes the fee at $12.65.
That ordinance passed on a 13-6 vote, which was the same as for the previous ordinance except for Gay changing to a yes.
The bills were designed to raise the fee to cover the actual cost of service, which according to Council auditors had risen to $30.40 since 2010, when the $12.65 fee was established.
To put the fee in perspective, consider that the average cost of a new car has increased from $24,296 in 2010 to $47,542, as reported by the U.S. Department of Energy and Edmunds, respectively.
The legislation sets a public hearing on the proposed increase for May 27, after which Council will take a vote on the proposed fee. Assuming it passes, the $27 fee will appear on city residents’ tax bills next year.
Council members supporting the ordinances said the increase was needed to keep the city’s overall finances healthy following a year when the city approved several high-cost items, including raises for first responders and incentives for economic development projects Downtown and across Duval County.
“This issue has been tossed back and forth for the last 15 years and basically no one has done anything,” Amaro said. “And now we‘re at the intersection where something needs to be done.”
Amaro urged his colleagues to “quit kicking the can down the road and do the right thing tonight.”
Call for budget cuts
Opponents argued that Council should try to cut the budget before imposing higher fees on residents.
“We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem,” Carrico said.
Gay made a similar comment, saying, “There are a lot of holes we need to fix before we go sticking our hands into the pockets of our constituents.”
Miller, in a move that helped draw support for the fee, devised the stepped-in approach after Carlucci’s original bill called for an immediate increase to $30.40. He said the legislation wasn’t an alternative to budget cutting.
“To me, it’s not one or the other,” he said, pledging to work with opponents of the bills to make budget cuts. “We still have to find ways to save money.”
Lahnen agreed.
“My voting yes on this was not also saying, no, there’s nothing that can be reduced,” he said. “I think as a Council, our goal should be to make sure we leave here with the same millage rate, or a lower one. And I think this was really kind of a first step in that.”
Arias voted no on the increase when it went before the Council Finance Committee meeting, and challenged Deegan to take a stance on the issue.
After Deegan stated publicly she would vote for the ordinance as amended, Arias asked Deegan’s chief of staff, Mike Weinstein, to confirm that she was still supporting Council on the issue. Weinstein said that if Council passed the ordinance, “she will sign it and she will stand beside you.”
Arias said he struggled with the increase personally, but supported it after holding several meetings with constituents.
“Because they support this, I support this,” he said.
Matt Carlucci said his reasons for introducing the bill also included addressing an unfair issue between Jacksonville residents and their fellow county residents in the Beaches communities and Baldwin.
Those towns have their own contracts with trash service providers, but they also pay taxes to the city of Jacksonville. That is the basis for why the city cannot legally use the general fund money for trash pickup in Jacksonville. Doing so essentially leaves the Beaches towns and Baldwin paying for both their own pickup and service for Jacksonville residents.
‘How to push an unpopular issue’
Matt Carlucci held numerous meetings with residents on the issue and also spoke about it in media interviews and in guest columns to local publications. His public promotion prompted Salem to say that if a textbook were to be written on “how to push an unpopular issue,” Carlucci should be its subject.
Carlucci said that in his meetings, he never heard significant opposition to raising the fee. Rather, he said, residents understood the need to quit feeding the growing obligation for the subsidy.
“I was so encouraged that I would really rather say I was astounded that everybody was so supportive,” he said. “It made me feel good about the people in Jacksonville, who know that when we’re in trouble, we’ve got to pull on our big boy pants and bite the bullets and get the job done.”
After making an unsuccessful attempt to address the fee earlier in his Council career, Carlucci applauded his colleagues for showing political courage this time. In an earlier interview, he said some members through the years had come to consider raising the fee to be “political kryptonite” that would cause backlash at the polls for supporters.
“Votes like this that take the most courage are the ones that the when you leave public office you’ll be the most proud of and you’ll remember for the rest of your life,” he said.