If Auburn city manager John Salomone sincerely wants to address inequities in the current garbage pickup system, he will come up with an answer that does not punish residential property owners.

Salomone brought up his concern at Tuesday's city council budget session. Under the current system of paying for garbage through property taxes, heavy trash dumpers are paying the same for the service as those who use it to put out a bag of garbage each week.

“We want to make sure the people who generate a lot of refuse pay proportionally more than people who generate less,” he said.

We agree with that concept ... to a point. The family of four should not be paying the same amount for trash collection as the corner business that can fill a Dumpster each week. But we also don't want to see a family of six paying a few hundred extra dollars each year because of a change in the system.

Auburn is a highly taxed city in the most highly taxed state in the country. Working families deserve some basic services in return for those taxes, and that includes garbage service.

Perhaps the solution is a system that charges commercial customers but excludes residential properties. Or perhaps there should be a reasonable cap on the amount of garbage pickup customers can expect before being billed for extra trash.

What cannot happen, however, is a system that hits taxpayers across the board with yet another burdensome fee to give to the city.

Salomone has proposed various trash proposals in the past, and each time they have been met with strong opposition. He needs to understand that the average taxpayer is rather fed up with paying more money to local government.

It's encouraging that the city manager is looking to explore this issue with a committee of stakeholders outside of the budget formulation process. Maybe that's a sign that Auburn will come up with a garbage system that's fair but affordable.