CHALMETTE, La. -- Residents in one metro area parish could soon have to hold onto their trash a little bit longer. Budget battles could lead to cuts in sanitation services, which might leave you with one less day of trash pickup.
Garbage pickup is a twice a week sight in St. Bernard Parish, but one that could soon be no longer.
"It'd look bad," said Chalmette resident Robert Bordelon.
He fears potential cuts to the parish's sanitation budget could cut into the area's garbage pickup services. A spike in illegal dumping, Bordelon adds, might be the trashy result.
"I would think it would happen a lot cause there's no place to bring the trash unless you carry it yourself to the dump," he said.
Parish leaders hoped to charge residents an extra $20 per month on their water bill to raise more than $3.5 million for the sanitation and fire departments, but residents this past Saturday voted down the plan.
"We'll have to juggle some money around," said Councilman Frank Auderer. "Steal from Peter to pay Paul and that's what it amounts to."
Parish President Craig Taffaro said that could mean cutting down the parish's twice a week garbage pickup.
"This is probably the most challenging fiscal balancing act that we're going to have to do," said Taffaro.
The fee would have also helped pay for the staffing of newly constructed fire stations. Post-Katrina, the department's budget is taking a serious hit with a drop in its biggest funding source -- sales taxes.
On Saturday, 1,739 people voted against the $20 fee and 1,127 voted for it.
About one day after the election, a massive fire engulfed a three story apartment building near Village Square, leaving dozens of families homeless. Fire Chief Thomas Stone said the fee would have better prepared his department to take on similar blazes in the future.
"Not that many people got out and voted," said Stone. "But it's something that we really needed, and this is one of the reasons why."
But even sympathetic taxpayers say they're hard pressed to pay up. Bordelon says his once booming business is turning into a bust.
"I mean days the phone don't (sic) ring, nobody comes in, that's why I'm saying $20 right now it's hard," said Bordelon. "I'm struggling myself, I don't even know how much longer I can hang in there."
And with a multi-million dollar deficit to fill, the parish doesn't either. Taffaro said he and the council will have a budget conference meeting this Friday in hopes of crunching the numbers.
The council must pass a balanced budget by Dec. 1.
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