With his proposed trash pickup fee on life support, Mayor Kirk Caldwell is attempting to revive the idea by offering the City Council Budget Committee a new proposition.

Caldwell asked committee members Wednesday to consider imposing a $15 a month curbside pickup fee in exchange for dropping the property tax rate on the homeowners’ class to $3.40 per $1,000 of assessed value from the current $3.50 per $1,000.

While the version of Bill 13 that advanced out of the committee Wednesday did not include Caldwell’s new proposal, Budget Chairman Joey Manahan said it’s an idea that he and his colleagues will have to look at seriously in the next few weeks given the city’s upcoming obligations.

After two failed attempts in previous years, Caldwell’s original budget package in March proposed a $5 a month pickup fee. This year’s third attempt has been heading in the same direction — the draft of the bill that passed Wednesday removes all monthly collection charges and leaves only language that would implement a fee-based, appointment only bulky item pickup procedure that would replace the current system where trucks cruise designated Oahu neighborhoods on specific days of the month in search of items placed along the sidewalk.

But at an unexpected appearance before the Budget Committee Wednesday, Caldwell urged Council members to take another look at a trash-hauling fee, this time with a higher charge coupled with a drop in the homeowner tax rate that has remained the same for a number of years.

Imposing the fee and reducing the homeowner tax rate, combined with a recently passed bill that increases the homeowner’s exemption “which I support,” Caldwell said, would essentially cancel each other out.

Bill 3, introduced by Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi, increases the standard homeowner exemption to $100,000 from the current $80,000 which would give those in the homeowner category a $70 savings in taxes annually, assuming a $3.50 per $1,000 rate. Approved unanimously by the Council last week, Caldwell’s budget officials have previously voiced concern that it would cost the city an estimated $10 million in annual revenue.

A 10-cent reduction in the tax rate to $3.40 per $1,000 would cost the city about $16 million, he said. A $15 trash fee would generate about $15 million, he said.

“So it’s revenue neutral,” Caldwell said.

According to rough calculations made by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the combination of the $15 trash fee, property tax rate reduction and increased exemption would result in the owner-occupants of the average $800,000 house needing to pay about $40 more each year.

The family in an $800,000 house now pays $2,520 annually in property taxes with a $3.50 per $1,000 tax rate and an $80,000 exemption. That family would pay a smaller $2,380 with a $3.40 per $1,000 rate and a $100,000 exemption. That $140 in savings would be offset by the $180 annual cost of the proposed trash pickup fee.

Caldwell reiterated that Kauai and Maui counties charge a fee for curbside pickup, as do a majority of the municipalities on the mainland. He noted that the city has been charging a sewage disposal fee for years.

Imposing a trash fee, which would go into a dedicated account, would allow for the general operating budget to deal with impending expenses — including expected increases to employee pay for operation and maintenance of rail, he said.