Trash Fee to Target Nonprofits

Deep inside New York City's recently approved budget is a $17.2 million revenue estimate for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial plan to charge universities, religious institutions and nonprofits a new garbage-collection fee.

The only hitch: The mayor needs the City Council to approve legislation permitting the administration to impose the fee—and a majority of the council's 51 members oppose it.

A majority of the City Council's 51 members oppose a plan to charge some organizations a new garbage-collection fee. Here, a large pile of garbage in New York in January 2011.
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"I don't see how they could have snuck this into the budget—we surely did not agree to this," said Councilman David Greenfield, a Brooklyn Democrat, who has introduced legislation barring the administration from charging such a fee. His legislation already has the support of 31 members.

"The reality is this is a trash tax on nonprofits who can least afford to pay a tax during these trying fiscal times," Mr. Greenfield said. "It's our understanding that they need our permission to get it done. Obviously, they don't have our permission."

If a resolution isn't reached, it will put a hole, albeit tiny, in the city's $68.5 billion budget.

Last year, the city's Department of Sanitation proposed instituting a fee on nonresidential properties in the five boroughs that receive garbage collection and disposal services free of charge. The fee was slated to take effect during the fiscal year that began Sunday.

In May 2011, Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty told the council the department planned to spend the next several months to determine the appropriate charging and billing structure for the nonprofits and religious organizations. The administration hoped to adopt a charging structure that would "incentivize these customers to recycle," he told the council.

Earlier this year, the department sent a survey letter to organizations that would be affected by this proposal, asking them to estimate how much waste they generate.

Among council members, most of the opposition has focused on the small nonprofits and religious groups that might find a new garbage fee difficult to sustain.

But many large institutions with considerable financial backing—such as Columbia University, New York University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art—would also be affected. Taxpayers currently pay the bill for all these institutions' garbage.

Dick Zigun, executive director of Coney Island USA, a nonprofit which runs the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade, said the proposal amounts to a tax on organizations "that are not supposed to be taxed."

"We are struggling with a deficit," he said. "The impact would probably be a layoff."

Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for the mayor, said the administration is still examining the results of the survey and is crafting a proposal that will help the city double its recycling rate and decrease the amount of trash entering landfills. No decision has yet been made about carving out small institutions, but Mr. LaVorgna said the administration is committed to imposing a fee and hopes to have a refined proposal soon.

"We're working with the institutions and we're working with the council in coming up with a plan that will encourage recycling and be fair," Mr. LaVorgna said. "We think we're going to be able to come to a plan that makes sense that will help reduce the amount of waste produced out of New York City."

Council Member Letitia James, chairwoman of the council's sanitation committee, said she opposes the proposal, as currently pitched, because of its impact on small institutions. She declined to say whether she would support it if the city focused on large institutions.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a Manhattan Democrat who is preparing a campaign for mayor next year, hasn't taken a position on the proposal, said Justin Goodman, a council spokesman.

"This proposal requires legislation," Mr. Goodman said. "When we see the legislation, we will comment on it."