Richmond City Council Examining Fee for Business Litter Cleanup as Possible Ballot Measure

Richmond, CA— The Richmond City Council took initial steps Tuesday toward putting a measure on the November ballot that would charge the city's businesses a fee for litter removal to alleviate budget woes.

In a 6-1 vote, the City Council directed the city's staff to craft a litter abatement tax measure that could possibly make it on the November ballot after review.

The proposal was modeled after a fee that the Oakland City Council passed in 2006 and was pursued as a revenue-raising effort in response to Richmond's budget deficit projections.

Oakland's fast food businesses, liquor stores, convenience markets, gas station mini-marts and large retailers serving carryout food under that policy paid an excess litter fee based on the size of their businesses, ranging from $230 to $3,815.

San Francisco's Cigarette Litter Abatement Fee was also used as a potential option for Richmond's potential revenue-raising measure.Councilman Nat Bates was the sole vote in opposition to Richmond
pursuing the litter fee. He said Richmond should be attracting the sort of business interest that has neighboring cities flourishing.

"In Richmond, we don't have those … energized efforts, because our city is anti-business," he said.

The litter fee came out of discussions among Richmond leaders on March 15 about November ballot measures that may bolster revenues after the city was presented with a budget gap in excess of $10 million.

The budget was also discussed during Tuesday's City Council meeting.

Presented with what city staff said was a balanced budget after numerous cutbacks, the City Council's members - each citing different reasons - decided not to pass the budget.

By Bay City News

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