Hernando commissioners reject solid waste fee hikes, seek service cuts
Hernando commissioners rejected a 4.75% solid-waste fee hike, but staff must return with cuts as the county faces rising disposal costs and a $28 million landfill cell.
Hernando County commissioners rejected a proposed solid-waste fee hike and sent staff back to the drawing board, leaving the county to find another way to cover rising disposal costs without adding more pressure on household bills in Brooksville, Spring Hill and across the county.
The Board of County Commissioners voted 4-0 to deny the increase, with Commissioner Brian Hawkins absent. The move stopped a Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc. proposal for a 4.75% increase beginning Jan. 1, 2027, but it did not solve the county’s budget problem. Instead, commissioners directed staff and consultant Scott Harper to revise the plan and look at service reductions, including recycling and the acceptance of large items such as construction and demolition debris and mobile homes.
The fee package under review would have nudged several disposal charges upward, including Class I municipal solid waste, sludge and PSW from $62.47 to $63.37 per ton. Yard waste would have risen from $56.27 to $57.09 per ton, and tires from $154.88 to $157.13 per ton. The collection assessment would have stayed at $237.17, while the disposal assessment would have climbed from $98.04 to $102.70.
That assessment has been billed every year since Fiscal Year 1990/1991 and helps fund the county’s solid-waste system, including the closed Croom Landfill, the Northwest Solid Waste Facility, both convenience centers, the household hazardous waste program, the waste tire program and the recycling program. County notices show the issue had already advanced through a June 9 public hearing, following Resolution No. 2026-085 adopted April 29.
The rejection comes as Hernando is already tightening how residents pay at the scale and at the drop-off sites. As of June 1, the East Hernando and West Hernando convenience centers began charging $5 for up to five bags of household trash and $15 for larger loads and yard waste loads. The county also ended the landfill’s free 2,000-pound allowance, and all waste is now charged by weight, while recycling and residential household hazardous waste remain free.
Even with those changes, the county says it is building the next garbage cell at a cost of $28 million, a project meant to extend disposal service for years. Commissioners’ refusal to approve the new rate increase shows the political limits of passing rising waste costs directly to residents, but it also leaves the county with a harder choice: raise fees later, scale back services, or do both.
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