Trash Talk: St. Cloud Approves Spending Plan with Garbage Fee Hike

(KNSI) – St. Cloud approved its $53 million enterprise funds budget Monday night, including an increase in garbage service.

User fees pay for the nine enterprise funds. They include water, wastewater, hydroelectric, stormwater, street lights, parking, refuse, and operating the Municipal Athletic Complex and the River’s Edge Convention Center.

The cost for garbage hauling will go from $7.30 to $9.30 a month. It’s the first jump in 15 years. St. Cloud residents then rent a 95-gallon cart or the city’s green garbage bags to dispose of their trash. According to the public works department, the city has 16,500 customers, with about 30% using the carts and the rest opting for bags.

Other increases include yard waste bags jumping by a quarter from $1.25 to $1.50 and a compost permit increase by $5 from $25 to $30. The bag price was last changed in 2017, and the compost pass price has remained unchanged since 2007.

After the meeting, Mayor Dave Kleis spoke with KNSI News and said the users should only pay what they need to. “We kept those costs down over the years. It’s no different than property taxes. It’s not my money. We are entrusted with those dollars.”

Kleis cited inflationary costs as one reason for the change. He says the other is because the economics around recycling have changed in the last decade. “We were spending $22,000 on recycling a year. Now it’s over $260,000. That’s pretty significant because what we used to actually make in recycling, we now pay to have it taken.”

That’s because there’s no demand for recycled materials. China used to buy most of the nation’s recyclable scraps, but they no longer are, and the city has yet to find another buyer.

St. Cloud’s stormwater fee is going up by a dollar from $6.80 to $7.80. It is the first of five straight $1 increases over the next five years.

All other enterprise funds will remain the same.

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