[Durham INC] Herald-Sun article: Monthly garbage, recycling fee sought
TheOcean1 at aol.com
TheOcean1 at aol.com
Tue May 31 13:00:11 EDT 2011
I've always believed that there are a great many illegal yard waste dumps
annually. These are nearly impossible to see because they blend in with the
leaves {unless they are in bags}.
Charge for garbage collection and the resulting dumps won't be anywhere
near as invisible!
I seem to recall the figure $450 per ton ~ the amount it costs the Impact
Team to pick up an illegal dump site. That was many years ago. I learned
that while serving on a committee to address illegal dumping that had become
an over night sensation due to a short lived raising of the tipping fees at
the dump.
Those fees were instantly reduced, but it took awhile to catch up with many
of the illegal dumpers who hadn't learned that the fees had gone back down
because they were no longer visiting the city dump!
Hope we don't have to learn that lesson the hard way ~ all over again.
Bill Anderson
REALTOR
919 282-8209 Cell
------------ ~ -------------
919.324.3911 fax
www.SeagrovesRealty.com
In a message dated 5/31/2011 12:25:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
matt.dudek at gmail.com writes:
I also agree, is this something INC can take a position on? I really don't
want to see an increase in illegal dumping in my neighborhood, or anyone
else's.
Great assessment Kelly.
--
Matt Dudek
Master's Degree Candidate 2011
Department of City and Regional Planning/
School of Government
UNC - Chapel Hill
_matt.dudek at gmail.com_ (mailto:matt.dudek at gmail.com)
919.381.7577
Sent with _Sparrow_ (http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/?sig)
On Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 11:42 AM, Sally Clark wrote:
I totally agree with Kelly Jarrett's assessment.
Sally Clark
Prudential YSU Realty
921 Morreene Road
Durham, NC 27705
919-270-7558,cell
919-313-3469,office
919-282-1398, E-FAX
----- Original Message -----
From: _Melissa Rooney_ (mailto:mmr121570 at yahoo.com)
To: _kjj1 at duke.edu_ (mailto:kjj1 at duke.edu) ; _inc-list at DurhamINC.org_
(mailto:inc-list at DurhamINC.org) ; _owdna at yahoogroups.com_
(mailto:owdna at yahoogroups.com)
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Herald-Sun article: Monthly garbage,recycling
fee sought
Totally agree with you Kelly. At least taxes hold the property owner
responsible for the aesthetics in the neighborhood (s)he hopes to profit
from...renters who are temporary residents don't have such an investment in Durham
in the long run.
Melissa
____________________________________
From: Kelly Jarrett <_kjj1 at duke.edu_ (mailto:kjj1 at duke.edu) >;
To: <_inc-list at DurhamINC.org_ (mailto:inc-list at DurhamINC.org) >; owdNA
<_owdna at yahoogroups.com_ (mailto:owdna at yahoogroups.com) >;
Subject: [Durham INC] Herald-Sun article: Monthly garbage, recycling fee
sought
Sent: Tue, May 31, 2011 2:46:21 PM
Durham neighbors--
I don't know how many of you saw the article in today's Herald-Sun, but
Donald Long (Solid Waste Management Director) is proposing that Durham begin
charging a monthly fee for garbage & recycling service. I've pasted a link
and the article below.
My initial response to this proposal is: What a terrible idea. We see how
badly this fee-for-service system works with yard waste. When it became fee
based, people opted out. To make garbage & recycling fee-for-service based
in a community such as ours, with a 50% rental housing rate, is a recipe
for disaster. What happens if residents don't pay the fee? Their garbage
isn't picked up? Whose responsibility is it to see the fee is paid: the
residents? The property owner? The property manager? If a resident moves, does
their trash fee move with them or would they have to pay again at a new
property? Who will insure that fees are paid and trash is collected for each
household? What happens if a property manager or rental owner goes belly-up
and these fees aren't paid? How will the current legislation pending that
would prohibit rental registries and limit inspections impact problems with
trash pick-up, non-payment of fees? What happens if owners decide not to
pay? Who will clean up after the inevitable surge of illegal dumping? Handle
complaints from businesses who find other people's garbage in their
commercial bins? Will animal control increase their responses to rat and pest
infestations?
According to Long, this will enable Dept. of Solid Waste Management to
"reduce its annual demand for property tax revenues." Bonfield says the move
won't reduce the department's operating needs: "This is all just about how
you pay for the service." This is a kind of "robbing Peter to pay Paul"
accounting in which the losers are taxpayers, who will be saddled with a
non-deductible fee for a service that is now tax-based and deductible. See the
numbers Gronberg provides below: paying for the service will cost us
$35/year; property tax rollbacks would lower property tax rates by $15--hardly a
deal for taxpayers. I say--stop the smoke-and-mirrors accounting and don't
nickle-and-dime Durham residents with fees for essential services like
trash collection. Keep these services in the tax-base, where at least they are
deductible and you can insure that everyone will receive the services.
Kelly Jarrett
_Monthly Garbage, Recycling Fee Sought_
(http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/13496064/article-Monthly-garbage--recycling-fee-sought?instance=homes
econdleft)
By Ray Gronberg
_gronberg at heraldsun.com_ (javascript:return) ; 419-6648
DURHAM -- Solid Waste Management Director Donald Long is telling elected
officials he thinks it's "imperative" for Durham to emulate other North
Carolina cities and begin charging residents a monthly collection fee for
garbage and recycling.
Long said the move would enable his department to reduce its annual demand
for property tax revenues, which in fiscal 2011-12 will cover $12.5
million of a $21.3 million budget.
He noted that Durham is an outlier among major North Carolina cities in
not charging a collection fee. Ten of the 12 communities Durham usually
compares itself to already have such a levy, Greensboro and Winston-Salem being
the major exceptions.
A recent accounting change that labeled the Solid Waste Management
Department's operation purely an "enterprise" fund implies that the department
should lower its reliance on the city's tax-fortified general fund, Long said.
Long floated the idea during a recent City Council budget review. His boss
, City Manager Tom Bonfield, was quick to point out that his fiscal 2011-12
budget request doesn't include any request for a fee.
"It is not a recommendation" for the coming year, though it is something
administrators are "continuing to explore" for future years and that might
be worth talking about in detail early in the council's budget review for
fiscal 2012-13, he said.
Bonfield added that a change from tax-paid to fee-paid collections
wouldn't be driven by Solid Waste's operational needs. "This is all just about how
you pay for the service," he said.
Long's comments took City Council members by surprise. "Thanks for waking
us up," Councilman Eugene Brown quipped, alluding to the subject having
cropped up fairly late in a daylong meeting.
Reaction among them was mixed.
Mayor Bill Bell pointed out that the imposition of a collection fee would
allow a future council to roll back property taxes by an amount equivalent
to the new revenue.
Long singled out as a potential example for Durham to follow the $2.95
monthly fee Asheville charges residents for recycling service.
He said a similarly sized levy here would raise about $2.3 million, about
the same amount as a penny on the city's property tax rate generate for the
city.
But Councilwoman Diane Catotti -- who's stepping down at the end of her
term later this year -- noted that a collection fee could hurt lower-income
residents.
"Clearly, fees for general services are more regressive than the property
tax," she said. "I might rather leave [garbage and recycling collections]
in the tax rate."
Were an Asheville-sized fee on offer in Durham for fiscal 2011-12, it
would cost most homeowners $35.40. A revenue-equivalent rollback of property
taxes would put only about $15 back in the hands of the owner of a $150,000
house.
But anyone with a house valued in the neighborhood of $350,000 and above
would get more back from a property tax rollback than the fee would cost.
Business owners and anyone else who uses use a private dumpster collection
service would also benefit.
Durham officials have long chafed at comparisons of their city's tax rate
to those of other cities, such as Raleigh, that rely more heavily on
service fees than their own. Those that do can use lower tax rates, but the
overall, fee-inclusive cost burden for residents can be a little different.
Over the years, Long has been more willing than most Durham department
directors to suggest major changes to the financing of his operation.
In 2007, he floated the idea of establishing a $51.90 annual fee to
finance expanded yard-waste and bulky-item pickups. That proposal never made it
past the talking stage, as then-City Manager Patrick Baker declined to
support it.
(http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250)
Read more: _The Herald-Sun - Monthly garbage recycling fee sought_
(http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/13496064/article-Monthly-garbage--recycli
ng-fee-sought?instance=homesecondleft#ixzz1NwKKyFJ5)
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