Winter Springs votes to catch up on solid waste fees 

Fees for solid waste pickup in Winter Springs will jump 26% in 2024 and then again in 2025 to make up for a deficit the city has been running since 2006. The vote to make it happen came Monday night as the City Commission voted 4-1, with Commissioner Cade Resnick dissenting, to establish a new solid rate fee schedule. 

That jump in fees may surprise residents, but was talked about at length when the city’s consultant, MSW Consultants, presented a plan to the city in August and early October that would help the city ramp up solid waste its fees to avoid digging a financial hole any deeper than the city had already found itself in. 

The city currently pays its solid waste disposal provider, Waste Pro, one of the lowest rates in Seminole County, helped in part by the city’s proximity to the county’s waste transfer station, which is just a short drive up State Road. 419 to where Winter Springs’ northwest corner meets unincorporated Seminole County.

“We have been (charging) to our residents $18.10 since 2006,” Winter Springs interim finance director Donna Bruno said regarding the monthly fee, adding that as the city’s fees to residents stayed the same, Waste Pro and county service charges were rising.  

“We had a rate that we were paying to Waste Pro and to the county for solid waste disposal. Eventually those lines intersected, which meant we were pulling from the reserves to continue the service of the solid waste,” Bruno said. “It got to the point where there isn’t much left to pull from.” 

The result was the city hiring MSW Consultants, which specializes in consulting with local governments about solid waste contracts, to project the city’s budget and price demands for solid waste collection in the future. 

“Folks…have been getting really good service at a frankly below-market price for a few years,” said John Culbertson of MSW Consultants on Aug. 14. “In order to maintain that service it seems very likely that rate increases are going to need to happen.”

That firm issued a final report to the city on Oct. 4 that was similar its original recommended solid waste fee schedule: a 26% increase in fees for two years.  That means residents would pay $22.81 in 2024, then $28.74 in 2025, followed by smaller, incremental increases to keep pace with market forces. In 2026 the projected fee, which could be adjusted upward depending upon the Consumer Price Index, would be $30.17. In 2027 it would be $31.38. All increases would take effect on Jan. 1 of that year. 

The year 2027 budget caught Commissioner Cade Resnick’s eye because of the potential to negotiate a new contract with either the city’s current solid waste disposal provider, Waste Pro, or with a new company. The city currently piggybacks on a contract with other municipalities and Seminole County to achieve a better rate, Bruno said. 

Resnick said that he fears the city won’t be ready for what will happen come negotiation time. 

“I see us getting hit in 2027 with a drastic increase that we’re not prepared for,” he said. 

When asked by Mayor Kevin McCann what alternative plan Resnick was offering, Resnick said that he wasn’t offering, but that he feared “the increase is going to be drastic sooner rather than later.”

The Commission also voted 4-1 to enact a one-time “extra inflation rate adjustment” increase to Waste Pro of 4%, to take effect Nov. 1. That rate is what the city pays Waste Pro, not the rate that residents pay to the city. Resnick also was the lone dissenter in that vote.