More Montebello Trash Talk

This article was in the LA Times a day or two ago.

But this article isn't very helpful, because on the first page, it says that, under the agreement, Athens will pay the city of Montebello $500,000 plus 7.5% of its Montebello commercial customer fees.  But on the second page, it says Athens will pay a 20.5% franchise fee on commercial accounts.

The article also says current haulers are paying a 13% fee.  So based on the article, I can't tell if the new contract would mean more or less money for the city of Montebello.  I'd expect getting a monopoly would definitely mean higher fees for commercial accounts (Adam Smith and all that).  Can't say anything about environmental compliance.

CC should have asked the other haulers to beat the deal

The city should have gone to the other haulers and asked if they could match the "tax increase" that Athens was proposing.

Monopoly capitalism in action.