Bristol, Va. Residents Prepares to Pay More to Support Landfill Repairs

The city of Bristol, Va. is estimating that it will cost more than $60 million to support its efforts to repair local landfills.

“As we suspected, we are going to have a tough year for the budget,” Neal Osborne, Mayor of Bristol, Virginia said in a statement. “Right now, we have a $28.8 million gap due to solid waste. … We’ve got recommendations to raise a couple different tax rates and to raise the trash rate.”

Bristol residents could soon be paying more to help fund the ongoing task. A new proposal for 2024 could see the price of trash collection increase from $33 a month to $72. Other proposed increases include raising the meal tax by 3 percent, the lodging tax by 4 percent, and real estate tax raising to $1.17 per $100 of assessed value, up from the current $1.12.

Speaking with local news, Osborne said, “as someone who lives in Bristol, Virginia also, I don’t want to have to pay the increased rate either. We have, as a city council, as the governing body of the city, we have a fiduciary responsibility that we have to maintain and operate the city of Bristol, Virginia.”

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