News of Springfield’s halted trash fee made the news last night and this morning. Today’s Republican includes an article by Marla Goldberg, and last night CBS3 aired a story by John Rupolo. Stories on the subject also aired on WWLP and ABC 40. (Update: MassLive.com also provides the text [PDF] of the decision.) From Goldberg’s article:
[Judge Constance] Sweeney found the property owners have a "reasonable likelihood" of proving that the city imposed an illegal tax.
She cited a landmark case called Emerson College vs. Boston, in which the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that legitimate municipal fees are paid by choice in exchange for services. Residents can decide not to use services to avoid fees, and fees are not collected to raise revenue, but to compensate government for service expenses.
The new trash fee, Sweeney stated, runs afoul because it is mandatory unless the city grants an exemption. To be exempt, property owners must prove they haul their own garbage, or have hired a licensed private hauler.
"The customer is not free to just give the city back its container and walk away … the opt-out provision is coercive, essentially leaving the customer at the mercy of the city …," Sweeney stated.
Matt S. of WMassP&I also weighed in last night. From his post:
[T]his could set the stage for Governor-elect Deval Patrick’s first tussle over the Control Board, perhaps even forcing him to spend his political capital on Springfield, despite previous intuition to the contrary. Patrick, who will likely have taken over the puppet strings of the Control Board by the time this gets settled out, may need to use legislation, executive fiat, or simply political clout to do so. He may remember, as any good governor of a state with many older industrial cities should, that Springfield is just the tip of the iceberg.…This comes, coincidently, after The Republican highlighted potential mayoral contenders including Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera. I would hope she would not resort to this type of grandstanding to touch off a campaign, whether she is right or not.
Readers may also be interested to know that the ripple effects of the trash fee came up at the last meeting of the Finance Control Board on October 20. From that meeting’s notes, transcribed and provided by resident Sheila McElwaine:
[FCB Executive Director Philip Puccia]: This is the ordinance…that defines the terms should a homeowner wish to not participate in the city’s trash disposal program and pay the $90; they have the right to hire a private hauler. What this ordinance here does is outline the terms and requirements for someone to be a private hauler in the city of Springfield…so that we have to issue them a license, we have to know where the garbage is being disposed of, we have to know who they’re doing it for, and the like. We expect, frankly, there to be very limited use of private haulers for residential trash based on the fact that $90 works out to be…it’s not economical…It’s $1.72 a week is what our costs are, so I don’t know how anyone in the market could compete, so that’s what this is.
[FCB Chairman Alan LeBovidge]: Any questions? So we need to just approve this?
PP: Yes. It’s, I believe, a second reading. Is that not?
[Springfield Mayor Charles Ryan]: I’ll make a motion to approve.
**MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY.
AL: That was easy.
