Oviedo Eyes First Trash Fee Increase Since 2021 to Close Budget Gap

A trash program that bled more than $134,000 last year is on course to hit a $1 million annual deficit by 2030 absent any fee increase, and the $25 monthly charge Oviedo residents have paid since 2021 hasn't moved a cent in the meantime.

City officials confronted that math head-on at a work session Monday at City Hall, 400 Alexandria Blvd., where Mayor Megan Sladek and the council reviewed two fee-increase scenarios before any formal ordinance comes to a vote. The session put into sharp relief how quietly the city's solid waste finances have eroded through five years of flat rates and rising costs.

"Gas prices have gone up, tipping fees have gone up, labor costs have gone up, and over the course of years, it's just gotten to be too big," Sladek said.

For a typical household, the near-term bite is about $4.09 a month. Under Option 1, the monthly charge rises from $25 to $29.09, roughly $49 more per year, with annual step-ups bringing the rate to $31.51 by 2030. That translates to approximately $378 annually for the service that currently costs $300 a year. Option 2 adds a full-time city employee dedicated to overseeing the hauler contract with Waste Pro of Florida and protecting city-owned infrastructure, including the collection carts that belong to Oviedo rather than the hauler. That staffing layer nudges the opening rate to $29.29 a month, reaching $32.16 by 2030. The gap between the two options amounts to about $0.20 a month at the outset.

Staff framed the oversight position as a buffer against the service failures most visible in residents' daily lives: missed pickup days, damaged carts, and inconsistent yard waste and bulk collection scheduling. Without dedicated in-house management, complaints currently route through Waste Pro directly at 407-774-0800 or through city Public Works at 407-971-5681, a structure staff indicated is increasingly inadequate as cost pressures mount.

If neither option advances, city projections keep the program in the red through the decade, eventually forcing a choice between service cuts, contract renegotiations on unfavorable terms, or drawdowns from reserves.

The March 30 session carried no binding vote. Any formal fee adjustment requires at least one public hearing before final council action. Residents can track when those hearings are added to the calendar at cityofoviedo.net/AgendaCenter, where agendas post the Friday before each session. Public comment is accepted at the start of regular meetings at City Hall.

When that hearing is scheduled, the questions most worth pressing are: What is the per-ton tipping fee the city or Waste Pro currently pays at the disposal facility, and how much has it risen since 2021? Does the hauler contract include performance penalties for missed collections, and have any been applied? What share of collection trucks are sidelined in a given week by driver shortages or mechanical issues? And if reserve funds are currently softening the annual deficit, how many more years does that cushion hold before a fee increase becomes unavoidable regardless?