Pasco commissioners approve smaller garbage rate increase

Pasco residents didn’t get a freeze in garbage rates for next year, but they won’t have to pay the full 16.5 percent that was set to take effect.

County commissioners today approved a compromise that raises fees 6.4 percent in 2009. Maximum residential rates will go from $11.69 a month to $12.44. Commercial fees, which vary based on volume, also will rise by the same percentage.

In voting to raise rates, commissioners rejected a staff recommendation to hold the line next year due to an economy battered by foreclosures. Haulers told commissioners the formula approved in 2007 actually measured expenses in after the fact and said they had been hit hard by diesel prices that peaked near $5 a gallon.

Lisa Buie, Times Staff Writer

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