San Diego has to start collecting food waste from its residents or face penalties from the state which mandated it. The costs of providing the heavy, cumbersome and therefore expensive waste stream are piling up, but the city can’t charge everyone who lives here to do it.
That could change with Measure B, the city’s solution should voters approve it this November, which would allow San Diego to alter a century-old law that now prohibits the city from charging most single-family homeowners for any kind of waste pick up.
It’ll still take a few years for the city to actually set the new waste rates should Measure B pass.
In the meantime, the city’s Environmental Services department is leaning harder and harder on its main pot of tax dollars to cover those costs for single-family homeowners.
Read the story in its entirety here.
The Politics of Garbage
In the latest Politics Report, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts get into a couple things. First, garbage and positions politicians take on it. A story in the Union-Tribune about candidates for City Council and their positions on Measure B got our editors’ attention.
Tommy Hough, a Democrat in a tight race for the Council District 6 race, came out strongly opposed to the fee in that story. His position against the fee is interesting (he’s a liberal Democrat) but turns out he didn’t always feel that way.
Here’s what the Politics Report found and how Hough responded.
Also in the round up, an update on the San Diego Association of Governmnet’s driving fee and the plan to remove it. Third time’s the charm?
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Related: The VOSD Podcast hosts get into Measure B and discuss the aftermath of Bill Walton’s emails. Listen to that here.
In Other News
- Sen. Brian Jones plans to propose a bill that would prohibit homeless encampments near schools, libraries, public parks and more. (KPBS)
- The Union-Tribune reports that some 224 elected and appointed officials failed to file annual financial disclosures.
- The annual Adams Avenue Street Fair almost didn’t happen this year, but organizers pushed through. Still it seems the event will be a financial loss for the Adams Avenue business district. (NBC 7)
The Morning Report was written by Andrea Lopez-Villafana.