Port St. Lucie Votes to Return $24M Waste Pro Settlement to Residents via Tax Credits

PORT ST. LUCIE — After years of overflowing garbage bins, missed pickups, and a bitter legal fight, Port St. Lucie residents are finally getting their money back — but not in equal amounts, and not by mail.

The city council voted Monday to distribute the full $24 million settlement received from former trash hauler Waste Pro USA through credits on residents' property tax bills, bypassing the logistical tangle of mailing individual checks to tens of thousands of households.

The split-tier credit structure is the story's sharpest edge. More than 5,700 households that have had the same owner since 2022 — the residents who endured the worst of Waste Pro's service failures during the pandemic — will receive a $364 credit. Everyone else gets $64.

"They're the ones that suffered who went through the litigation, and now it's time to reward them for the suffering they did," said Councilman David Pickett.

The city says the lesser credit reflects a narrower harm: the $64 accounts for rate increases tied to Waste Pro's breach of contract, including costs to stand up a new waste site, litigation expenses, and the transition to a new hauler. The remaining $300 difference is reserved for those who bore the direct service disruptions.

The problem is scale. The city identified 24,676 properties that have had a title change since 2022 — but acknowledges it cannot distinguish whether those changes stem from trusts, marriage, divorce, or an outright sale. Former owners, meanwhile, cannot be reached through the tax roll at all. Those properties, along with 13,241 newly built or newly occupied homes, receive only the $64 credit because, as the city notes, they also paid the Consumer Price Index-related rate increases that followed.

Residents who sold one Port St. Lucie home and bought another within the city during the same period may submit documentation to prove continuous ownership. A 180-day claims window will allow qualifying households to receive the remaining $300 credit on the following year's tax bill. City staff and the city's legal department are still developing the claims process. Officials said

Mayor Shannon Martin, who said in April she was "committed to making sure that our residents get paid back," called the outcome consistent with her original position Monday night.

"From the beginning, I have maintained that the funds should be to benefit the residents who experienced the issues in 2021 and 2022," Martin said.

Councilman Anthony Bonna offered a blunter endorsement: "I think we have reached the sweet spot here."

The council also voted not to reimburse the city's general fund for emergency solid waste expenses incurred during the crisis period — a decision that effectively keeps the entire settlement in residents' hands rather than backfilling city accounts. Officials said

The dispute traces to 2021, when both the city and Waste Pro filed lawsuits against each other. The city alleged breach of contract over the standard of service; Waste Pro blamed pandemic-era labor shortages for its inability to maintain collections. Trash piled up on curbs across the city's sprawling subdivisions for months.

"It was a mess," said Port St. Lucie resident Kelly Lee, who contacted WPTV reporter Tyler Hatfield about Monday's meeting and has followed the case closely. "It would just be a stinky mess on their yard. They didn't pick up, and it's overflowing."

Lee said she was ultimately satisfied with the council's approach, though she raised pointed questions about fairness beforehand — specifically, what happens to residents who lived through the Waste Pro nightmare and then left the city.

"They were here during that time, they've since moved, so where does their fair share go?" Lee said.

Scott Samples, a city spokesman, acknowledged the complexity of the distribution challenge.

"There's a lot of people that have been working on this," Samples said. "Ultimately the goal is to make the best decision possible, help remediate some of those issues, and those nightmares that people have from back then."

Whether the 180-day claims process delivers on that goal for displaced former residents remains an open question. Former owners no longer on the tax roll have no automatic path to a credit — and the city has not announced any outreach mechanism to find them. Officials said

Port St. Lucie residents seeking information on the claims process should monitor the city's official website at cityofpsl.com or contact the City Manager's Office at (772) 871-5226.

This article was generated with AI assistance using publicly available information. It was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication. TC Sentinel uses AI writing tools in accordance with FTC guidelines.