Mayor Helena Moreno is asking the New Orleans City Council to increase the fee residents pay for curbside trash and recycling collection, warning that without new revenues, she’ll have to make cuts to essential services in next year’s budget.
At a wide-ranging press conference on Monday, Moreno said the sanitation fee costs households $24 per month but only covers a fraction of what it costs the city to provide once-per-week, curbside trash and recycling collection. City Hall is spending $24 million of its general fund in this year’s budget to fill the gap.
“Of course, I don’t want to do any type of increase in fee. I mean, I hate to even bring this up. But this fee is just totally out of whack,” Moreno said Monday, noting that the fee hasn’t changed since 2011…