Malden Mayor Vetoes PAYT Price Cut

Malden Mayor Gary Christenson has vetoed a proposal from the city council to cut the price of Pay As You Throw bags in half.

called for the current, $2 bags to be reduced to $1 over the course of four years, dropping in price by 25 cents each year. The current $1 would have also been decreased to 50 cents during that same period.

In a letter to the council explaining his veto, Christenson cited a structural deficit of $3 million to $4 million annually as a reason why the city can’t afford to make the change.

“The legislation comes at a time when our finances remain in a precarious position,” Mayor Christenson said. “I believe that we need to thoroughly evaluate the financial impact of any changes to the current program so that we can all be assured that we can maintain the delivery of services that our residents have come to expect and deserve.”

Mayor Christenson was also concerned that reducing the price of the bags would decrease the amount of recycling in the city. Since the institution of the PAYT program, 30 to 40 percent of Malden’s solid waste goes towards recycling, which the mayor said “translates to hundreds of thousands of dollars saved” by the city. With the cost of the bags reduced, the mayor thought it could be possible that the amount of recycling would go down as well.

The veto could have been overturned by a two-thirds vote in the city council, but the council decided to uphold it.