Do you all have to pay for school bus service & trash collection? (Pittsburgh: house, school districts)

[RoughCollie]

Here, we would have to pay $600 every July so that 2 of our kids could ride the school bus. We drive them instead because it is cheaper and the schools are only 2 miles away.

We also have to pay $6.50 for a package of 4 trash bags that are bright orange and emblazoned with our town's seal, plus $140 a year for trash pickup once a week.

Both of these costs used to be covered by our property taxes.

Is this happening in the Pittsburgh area too? I almost hate to ask in case I give anyone any bright ideas!

Thanks,
RC

[Copanut]

If you decide to live in Mt.Lebo, all kids either walk or parents drive them, there are no school buses. Most school districts provide transportation in the Pgh area.

[RoughCollie]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

If you decide to live in Mt.Lebo, all kids either walk or parents drive them, there are no school buses. Most school districts provide transportation in the Pgh area.

The house we are interested in is .7 miles from the high school. The kids can walk, burn calories, strengthen muscles, use up energy ... that sounds great to me.

Maybe I'll be so happy living in Pittsburgh that I'll greet each morning with zest, and the dog and I will walk them to school. Dog Breath would like that. Maybe the kids wouldn't though.

[BrianTH]

I'm not aware of any district charging for school buses. At our last house (in Edgewood), I believe we were paying for trash pickup for a while and then they actually stopped that and folded it into property taxes.

[Hopes]

School buses are free here. If your children attended a private school, the school district would have to provide them bus service if it was within 10 miles of the school district border. There's a state law saying that if a school district provides bus service, it must provide it for private school students if the school is within 10 miles, and if it's free to district students it has to be free for private students too. The reason is because private school students's families are tax payers too. To my knowledge, Mt. Lebanon is the only school district in the area that doesn't provide transportation.

We pay for trash collection. This might depend on township. I believe there was a time (might still be a time) when trash collection was free to city residents. Most townships charge for trash collection, but some might provide the service through taxpayer dollars. I think our trash collection costs around $30/quarter, but I'm really not sure what we pay, if anything, these days.

[bradjl2009]

Trash collection is part of property taxes here in the city.

[LAMBSN]

As other said...I have never heard of any borough / township paying for school bus service.

As for trash...my borough pays $90 a year for trash pickup and they take just about anything.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by LAMBSN

As other said...I have never heard of any borough / township paying for school bus service.

As for trash...my borough pays $90 a year for trash pickup and they take just about anything.

Wow, that's cheap! I pay about $30 a month for a weekly pick-up of one garbage can, plus every other week pick-up of recycling bins for paper, plastic, bottles, cans, & yard waste here in the SF Bay Area. Does Pittsburgh or the surrounding areas offer curbside recycling?

Oh yeah, when my kids were in K-8 I had to pay $30 per kid per month during the school year for school bus service. They eventually cancelled the service and I had to drive them. Took about 20 - 30 minutes each way. That's four trips a day. No fun! A time-eater, plus not so great for the environment to have most of the kids in separate cars vs. all on one bus.

Much as I like my relatively low property taxes here in CA, we pay for a lot of stuff ourselves as a result.

[LAMBSN]

Originally Posted by juliegt

Wow, that's cheap! I pay about $30 a month for a weekly pick-up of one garbage can, plus every other week pick-up of recycling bins for paper, plastic, bottles, cans, & yard waste here in the SF Bay Area. Does Pittsburgh or the surrounding areas offer curbside recycling?

For my $90 / year - I get curbside garbage pickup but we are not required to recycle in my borough due to the number of residents. But my parents live in a borough and they do not pay for trash pickup nor recycling pickup and yes, they get curbside pick up for both garbage and recycling.

[Hopes]

I've never heard of anyone NOT having curb side pick up for garbage and recycling in the Pittsburgh area. Years ago, you didn't even need to take your garbage cans to the curb. The garbage men came and took them from wherever you kept them on the property. Those were the good-old-days though.