When it comes to yard waste, $10 or 15 a year might not seem like much, but the inexpensive cost is exactly why people are upset about being nicked-and-dimed to death. If it costs so little, why pay a fee?

Charging a permit for composting only discourages property owners from planting trees. It discourages them from properly disposing yard waste. Clearly, Albert Lea does not want those things.

Removal of yard waste is cheap. It only costs the city $20,000 to operate the compost site. That&8217;s a drop in the bucket in the city budget.

The state doesn&8217;t require the city&8217;s compost program to run in the black. It requires the city&8217;s transfer station to run in the black. That requirement looks at the transfer station books separately from city coffers.

So here&8217;s the solution: Charge more to the heavy users of the transfer station. Stop exempting city contractors, too. Don&8217;t even exempt the city government, because surely it is a heavy user, too. Don&8217;t exempt any government entity.

But everyday Albert Lea homeowners shouldn&8217;t pay to clear their yards. Good, clean communities find a way to provide removal of yard waste from homes for no charge.

Also, the transfer station could allow city residents to compost for no charge but require a fee for out-of-town residents. Then the county and neighboring cities could decide whether they want to pitch in for the upfront costs instead of leaving their residents to pay.

Letter writer Ben Cerney makes good points in today&8217;s &8220;Your Comments.&8221; How many people keep our city clean without billing the city? Plenty.

Should a service club charge the state for cleaning ditches along interstate highways? Of course not. But there indeed is a reciprocating relationship between good government and the people it governs. If government charges a toll for roads, the service clubs probably would stop cleaning ditches.

Because of the permit, a smart worker could find a way around it: That person could pay a single $15 permit for the year, then charge each place a small fee to pick up yard waste at the curb, then dump it all at the transfer station. Or at least people could join together and save.

Be wise, city leaders. Charge the heavy users.