I lived in the NE and trash removal costs an impressive amount of money. I was in a town that did not charge and the amount of trash collected went way down when that changed. The other towns around us charged, and I am quite sure a good percentage of the trash was from them.
It was $800,000 in costs per year for a town of 7500.
Took a lot of convincing to get that turned around.
But it sounds like they have a lot of issues in that town, and probably the newcomers like the high taxes because it causes the townies to have to move out.