The Republican Party of Waukesha County has stated its dissatisfaction with the recent City Council vote to add new annual garbage and recycling fees.
The City of Waukesha has introduced a new set of fees that are intended to balance the municipality’s budget. As a way to remove $3.2 million from the yearly budget, a $160 per year price would be charged to each household for their residential garbage and recycling pickup. The change would shift the cost of residential waste cleanup from the city over to households.
Waukesha has claimed that this is an attempt to combat the rising costs involved in both waste management as well as in the city’s budget as a whole. It would also help combat the limited local revenue defined by state property tax law.
In comparison, the average homeowner can expect to pay $49 more per year for the same service between their 2025 and 2026 tax bill.
The waukesha GOP addressed this tax increase last week in a statement saying that:
“We are proud of the conservative Common Council members who voted “NO” on the new annual garbage/recycling fee on October 7. Namely, Mike Chrisien, Eric Payne, Dale Matthews and Dean Lemke whom the Waukesha GOP WISRED Initiative supports all stood strong. We are equally disappointed with members of the Common Council, who have stated that they are conservative but voted in favor of this measure.
Fiscal responsibility means standing up for taxpayers even when it’s politically inconvenient. Waukesha residents deserve better leadership and real accountability, not more financial burdens disguised as stability.”
The county party also slammed the use of the term “special charge”, which has been used to describe the pricing increase.
This comes after a change in 2024, when the City of Waukesha Johns Disposal for their waste management services. 20,000 households were impacted by the change, as they switched from Waste Management after Johns Disposal won the bid for the contract.
“We would be reducing the tax the property tax levy by $2,000,000,” City Administrator Tony Brown said, explaining how the change would impact the city’s yearly budget.
The Council adopted the resolution in a 9-5 vote, setting an inwitialdue date of November 7 for the first year’s bill.
