Terre del Reno. “The City Council on Monday 1 July confirmed what we suspected. Also for the year 2024 the Waste Tax (Tari) will increase for all users (both in the variable and fixed quota parts) by an average of 4.7%”. These are the words of the opposition group leader and former mayoral candidate for Futuro Comune Francesco Margutti. “For the waste management service for the year 2024 – he adds -, Clara has asked our municipality for the amount of €1,999,379, an increase of over €86,000 compared to what she had requested in 2023”.
Margutti also states that the director general of Clara explained the increases, arguing that the increase was due in particular to inflation which increased the expenditure items.There is nothing to object to in this finding”, he explained, “which however does not take into account some fundamental aspects”.
Among these he points out that door-to-door collection has made Terre del Reno the first municipality in the province for separate waste collection (83.7%) and this should have led to a “reduction of the tariff in relation to the capacity of each person to produce and divide waste”. This however would not have happened, “know – he says – that in the next 3 years the percentage increases will continue to be at least 5% on an annual basis”.
Margutti points out that “thea punctual (or metered) tariff that would allow each person to pay according to what they actually produce is not currently practicable in our Municipality. Perhaps in the future. For now, you pay based on the size of your home and the number of family members”.
Finally he asks himself why “the increase in costs requested by Clara must be passed on to the citizens, who already pay dearly for the increase in all expenses”. Her group therefore proposed “that the municipality should take charge of covering the cost increases by applying the principle of mitigation of tariff increases, thus leaving the Tari unchanged”.
However, it was replied that “this is not possible, except to then remember that our Municipality had adopted this measure in 2019 (without proposing it again) and that several Municipalities apply this measure to avoid passing the increases on to their citizens. But not us”.
Finally, he points out that the positions reported are the same as those of the mayor who, in the city council meeting of September 30, 2020, said: “All this effort in waste management and door-to-door collection must also lead to a benefit on tariffs.”
“Last night – he concludes – instead the mayor and the majority voted without any hesitation for yet another increase in the Tari, effectively forgetting what they had supported in the past”.
