Trash collection for people like Danny Boyer in Grayson County currently costs $3 a week.
"If we lived in a perfect world, the people that require services from the county, everybody would pay equal for those services," said Boyer, a cattle farmer.
But some county leaders say the current fee is too much to bear for low-income families.
John Brewer, who serves on the Board of Supervisors for Grayson County, wants to eliminate the trash fee, and increase the tax levy by around 5 cents on every $100, or around 10 percent of real estate value. Although, a range of 10 to 15 percent has been talked about. Chairman David Sexton is also in favor of the plan.
"We want to lower the negative impact on some of our poorer citizens," said Brewer.
Boyer says, with the amount of land he owns, increasing his property tax by an additional 15 percent could cost him hundreds, even thousands of dollars.
"To totally transfer it over to the real estate taxes I think would be an unwise decision," said Boyer.
WSLS checked, and if Brewer's plan went through, Boyer would have to pay around $350 a year, while some would save more than $100.
"That individual that owns $1 million can more adequately absorb the impact on their economic circumstance, than the senior citizen on $50,000 worth of real estate, and is trying to survive on six or seven hundred dollar a month," said Brewer.
Other ideas include taking trash to collection sites or doing away with public pickup altogether, which would cost the county revenue.
Supervisors will hammer out these ideas over the next few months.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement