Residents in St. Paul spent Tuesday night debating the city's upcoming vote surrounding its controversial trash ordinance. The St. Paul Neighborhood Network and the League of Women Voters hosted the debate.
In 2018, the city moved to do away with residents choosing their own trash providers. Instead, the St. Paul implemented a new system where providers were assigned specific neighborhoods.
Nancy Booth of St. Paul was among the crowd planning to vote against keeping the ordinance on Tuesday, November 5.
"I've seen prices go up and I've seen people be forced to have trash coverage that they didn't need and haven't had in 30 years," Booth told WCCO TV.
Costs have become the focal point for the argument of St. Paul's trash ordinance.
The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in mid-Ocotber that St. Paul still has contractual obligations to garbage haulers, even if voters reject the hauling system in next week's referendum.
"If voters repeal the ordinance, the $27.1 million annual cost of the contract will shift from individual rate payers to all property tax payers in the city," said St. Paul mayor Melvin Carter. "This will result in a 17.4 percent increase in the city's property tax levy."
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Those planning to vote in favor of the ordinance say it's important to simply understand what they're voting on.
“A ‘yes’ vote means that we’re not going to be talking about trash for years to come,” St. Paul resident Javier Morillo told WCCO TV. "What we're voting on is the actual ordinance that established organized trash collection,"
The vote takes place Nov. 5 will early voting already going on in St. Paul.
