Benton Harbor Commissioners vote to increase city’s garbage collection rates

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. -- Benton Harbor Commissioners voted Tues. evening to approve increasing the city’s garbage collection rates from $17.65 a month to $20 a month.

This comes after the city lost over $36,000 providing trash services in 2024. The city manager, Alex Little, explained to cover those extra costs, they’ve had to pull from other budgets.

“We constantly are taking money out of the general fund that needs to be there for other things, and at the same time, prices are steadily rising and that’s beyond our control,” said Little.

Originally, the resolution had the price increase set at $21, but Benton Harbor Mayor, Marcus Muhammad suggested to bring that down to $20, which was approved and amended.

“The landfill cost increasing, we’ve kept the rate at 17 dollars and 65 cents for years… as our grandparents would say, we have to learn to live with less,” said Muhammad.

To read more about the other changes they made to the trash billing process, garbage collection categories, or to view the entire Feb. 18 meeting once posted, click here.