The Goleta City Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to approve a 5.93% increase to MarBorg Industries’ solid waste rate in Goleta.

The council held a Proposition 218 hearing during its meeting, allowing affected customers and property owners to protest the rate increases. A notice of the hearing was mailed out to nearly 10,000 customers, and protests from a majority of them — 50% plus one — would be needed to block the proposed rate increase.

At the beginning of the meeting, only three formal protests were submitted to the City Council.

The rate increase is based on changes in the consumer price index — which was 7.4% for February 2020 to February 2021, then multiplied by total acceptable CPI increase — and the tipping fees.

The tipping fees increased a total of 1.45%, with the Santa Barbara County trash and recycling fee increasing from $164 per ton to $170 per ton and the Santa Barbara County green waste fee increasing from $49 per ton to $51 per ton. The tipping fee increases are associated with the Tajiguas ReSource Center.

In approving the resolution with the rate increase, the City Council also approved a new process for rate increases from July 1, 2023, through July 1, 2028.

Instead of requiring an annual Proposition 218 protest hearing, the rates may be adjusted annually to account for CPI and disposal fee increases without a protest hearing.

The staff report for the item does state that rate increases cannot exceed 10% per year, and the increase also cannot cause trash service feed to exceed the cost of providing service.

This process is estimated to save about $20,000 per year and “many hours of staff and City Council time,” the staff report said.

The 5.93% rate increase will go into effect on July 1, and customers will be mailed notice of the increase at least 30 days in advance.

— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.