Albany

City lawmakers on Monday begrudgingly approved the new $180 per-unit trash fee on small apartment buildings, despite continued criticism that the measure was clumsily conceived and is racially and economically discriminatory.

The measure — expected to generate $1.5 million for city coffers this year — passed 9-4, with council members Dorcey Applyrs, Frank Commisso Jr., Judd Krasher and Mark Robinson opposing it.

"I don't think any of us like this particular proposal," 9th Ward Councilwoman Judy Doesschate said. "The reality is the city is broke."

Mayor Kathy Sheehan proposed the fee in October to help the cash-strapped city, which faced an $18.5 million deficit this year, to recoup some of the costs of collection at multi-unit buildings based on the premise that they are a greater burden on the sanitation system.

"The mayor commends the Common Council members who understand that to get the city onto solid financial ground we need to make difficult decisions," Sheehan's chief of staff, Matthew Peter said, calling the fee "the first part of a comprehensive citywide, long-term solution" to the city's trash problem.

But rental property owners argue there is no logical reason to tie the annual fee to the number of units instead of occupants or the amount of trash created and that Sheehan's decision to exempt single-family homes was politically calculated and will disproportionately hurt low-income renters.

While the fee adopted Monday broadly mirrors Sheehan's initial proposal, the council amended it to include a 2019 sunset provision and to require that the amount be reviewed every year.

The sunset provision is intended to give Albany time to develop a plan for how to manage and finance trash collection once the city-owned Rapp Road landfill is full around 2022 — a plan that most city officials acknowledge will likely include all residents paying for collection in some fashion.

Lawmakers also required that the money raised from the fee be kept in a separate account used solely to fund trash collection, with any surplus pledged to decrease the annual fee in subsequent years.

Sheehan has rejected the argument that the fee would automatically prompt landlords to raise rents, noting her staff found no significant difference in the costs of similar apartments in larger buildings that are already required to pay for trash collection from private haulers.

To combat those concerns, the council inserted language requiring the mayor to convene a task force on housing affordability in the city that will report to the mayor and council twice a year.

That wasn't nearly enough to satisfy the fee's sharpest critics, including Krasher, who blasted it as "immoral" and "so blatantly discriminatory it's infuriating."

"This is yet another example of this administration balancing this budget on the backs of those who can least afford it," said Krasher, who represents the midtown 11th Ward

Finance Committee Chairman Frank Commisso Jr. called the decision to exempt single-family homes nakedly political.

"People who vote in Democratic primaries are not going to pay for trash collection," said Commisso, who represents the uptown 15th Ward.

Council President Carolyn McLaughlin said all residents of the city share the pain of Albany's fiscal problems.

"The poorest of the poor will be negatively affected," McLaughlin said. "Certain groups should not be singled out to bear the brunt of those challenges."

Schenectady's decade-old trash fee applies to single-family homes, as does Rochester's. Binghamton and Utica charge residents based on the amount of trash produced — a system known as pay-as-you-throw.

Albany's fee will start at $180, but it will not apply to the first unit in any building. That means single-family homes and single-unit rentals are exempt and property owners will only pay for apartments two, three and four.

Buildings with five or more units are already required to pay for private trash collection.

Property owners will be exempt from the new fee if they can show proof they have hired a private trash hauler or if the owner lives in the property and qualifies for either an Enhanced STAR tax exemption or one offered by the city for low-income senior citizens and the disabled. Those income-based exemptions only apply to buildings up to three units.

Any property registered as vacant with the city is also exempt.

Roughly 7,250 properties — or 10,250 units — are expected to be assessed the fee, said Dennis Gaffney, a spokesman for Sheehan. The first bills are expected to go out next month.

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @JCEvangelist_TU