BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — For over an hour at a Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting in 2023, county residents blasted the Board, and it was for one stinky situation — literally.
The reason for the fiery speeches? A rural trash tax.
“The genesis for this was to improve the environment and decrease methane gas,” said Kern County District 3 Supervisor Jeff Flores. “However, in Kern County, you know, we’re a unique area. We’re rural. Some of our citizens have fixed incomes. This one-size approach didn’t necessarily benefit Kern.”
That one-size approach came in the form of Senate Bill 1383. The bill requires cities and counties to reduce organic waste disposal by 75% by 2025.
If the county doesn’t meet this deadline, they could face fees from the state.
The Board’s 2023 proposal of the trash tax would require rural residents to pay a small fee for trash collection and sorting. The proposal was met with harsh words.
“This whole thing stinks because the state of California has missed every deadline so far that they had to meet to put this thing into action,” said Richard Moglia, a community member, at the December 2023 meeting.
“The plans that they were going to use to convert the methane gas into something they could put into cars and that they don’t have anymore … The state is not going to meet any of the goals that they required.”
According to another California law, the affected rural areas could petition to formally oppose the measure. If a majority of the city’s residents reach a population-specific threshold, they can kill the measure in the area.
In 2023, six towns successfully killed the measure.
“Many folks in Kern County, to your point, came out to our Board of Supervisors meetings. They voiced their concerns. They were adamant about not paying this increase in fee,” said Flores.
Tuesday’s new proposal would implement the trash tax but allow local resident to opt out of the service. Residents who opt out can then drop their trash off at nearby self-haul areas.
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Flores said opting out would save many people some money.
“An average income person would be paying $560 a year to comply with this with their hauler. And so the steps that we’re taking tomorrow for Arvin, Delano, Ridgecrest, Rosamond (and) other parts of the county is to allow our citizens to self-haul their organics to our Kern County facility and avoid paying that $560 increase.”
The Board is set to discuss the trash tax and hear from concerned residents at Tuesday’s 2 p.m. meeting at 1115 Truxtun Ave. It is just a matter of time to see if the Board might throw away that trash proposal.
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