How you pay your garbage bill could be changing — again

Macon-Bibb County residents may return to paying garbage bills four times a year starting in 2019.

The County Commission will vote Aug. 7 on an ordinance calling for the end of the one-time annual billing for garbage and recycling services. The ordinance cites the financial hardship people on limited incomes face by having to pay the full bill at the same time as property taxes.

The measure was approved 6-1 in a commission committee meeting Tuesday, according to Commissioner Joe Allen, who sponsored the ordinance along with Commissioner Mallory Jones.

Macon-Bibb County residents began making annual payments for their 2018 services. The next round of bills —$240 for 2019’s services — are set to be sent out in September.

But a switch back to quarterly payments would take place in the late spring or early summer at the earliest, according to the Bibb County Tax Commissioner’s Office.

Allen and Jones said the yearly billing never should have been implemented. And now that fee could be compounded with a proposed 4.36 mills tax increase this year, Allen said.

“They can’t keep taxing people to death,” he said Monday.

There has been much debate about how often the bills are sent out. Last year, Mayor Robert Reichert vetoed another quarterly billing ordinance while earlier this year a petition was started to put an end to the yearly payments.

One reason some Macon-Bibb officials advocated for the annual billing was because the percentage of collections increased in other communities when garbage bills were sent out annually.

Another change to billing procedures also meant an additional 6,000-plus parcels are being charged for solid waste services.

Collections for this year’s services are so far $9.48 million compared to $8.3 million in fiscal 2017 when quarterly billing was still in effect, based on figures from the Bibb County Tax Commissioner’s Office.

Commissioner Scotty Shepherd, who was Tuesday’s lone vote against moving back to quarterly payments, said that he believes the annual billing is a fair system.

“If the annual payment is too much of a burden, (residents) can go down and see the (tax commissioner), and he would do it monthly, quarterly, whatever you can do to work it out,” Shepherd said Monday.

There are some ways for people to either avoid paying the fees or only making them on a monthly basis.

Residents can apply for some exemptions based on income level or disability.

Also, a mortgage company may agree to add the bill to the escrow, thus allowing monthly payments.

But Jones said there are plenty of other residents who can’t get the fee waived despite living on a fixed-income and already having paid for their home.

“It’s about all these people who do not qualify for a necessary exemption,” he said. “They’re going to fall between the cracks. We’re not talking about a handful of people. We’re taking about thousands of people.”

Along with the likelihood of less revenue, switching back to quarterly billing would also mean the county pays more to send out bills, said Chris Floore, assistant to the county manager for public affairs.

People currently are able to pay at “their own pace” with annual billing, he added.

“The mayor is adamantly opposed to going back to the old way of sending out bills and is hopeful the Commission sticks with the annual payment,” Floore said in an email. “Since the tax commissioner is able to accept partial advance payments, the cost to property owners is the same either way, and annual billing allows for people to include it in their escrow accounts to be paid automatically.”

Commissioner Al Tillman said supports returning to quarterly payments and would not be surprised if Reichert vetos the ordinance again.

“If we’re not going to educate the people on it, we need to take it back because (many) seniors don’t understand it and it’s so confusing,” Tillman said Tuesday afternoon.

This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 3:53 PM.