Some officials call for end or reduction of garbage tax

The county will pay off its landfill mortgage with $4-million to spare.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 3, 2000

INVERNESS -- With landfill operations back in the black and millions of dollars set aside for future projects, the county should consider reducing or phasing out the garbage tax, several county commissioners said Wednesday.

The comments came during a county budget workshop, when commissioners discovered that the county will pay off its mortgage on the landfill in January of 2002, and still have about $4-million to put toward digging a new landfill or paying to send the county's garbage elsewhere when the Lecanto landfill reaches capacity in 2004.

"If we've got $4-million extra that came about because we imposed a new tax on the citizens and businesses of this county, we might want to consider reducing that tax," Commissioner Jim Fowler said.

The county first imposed the assessment in 1997 to pay the debt service on the landfill. Each residence was charged $27 a year, and each business paid $1.65 per yard of garbage sent to the dump.

Those fees were designed to offset the cost of lowering the landfill tipping fee from $60 a ton to $30 a ton, a move that kept garbage haulers from taking Citrus trash to neighboring landfills with lower fees, solid waste management director Susan Metcalfe said.

Commissioners lowered the fees last year to $22 per residence and $1.35 per yard of garbage from each business because the garbage assessment was generating more money than the county needed.

Abolishing the garbage tax has been a common cry among some candidates running for County Commission.

Democrat Josh Wooten, Republican Scott Adams and Republican Millie King, all candidates for the District 5 seat that Commissioner Brad Thorpe is vacating, have called for a repeal of the tax. They say residents and business owners have unfairly shouldered a tax that benefitted garbage haulers and netted extra revenue for the county.

But Thorpe said the garbage assessment has strengthened the landfill's finances and raised money that will keep the county from going into debt on its next waste management project.

"If we give it all back, we'll be in the same position as before, without a way to pay off that debt service," Thorpe said. "It's a roller coaster."

Metcalfe said the solid waste management budget for next year is based on the current garbage assessment fees. The county needs to keep those revenues steady so it can pay the remaining $1.6-million on the landfill mortgage by January 2002, and raise the $5-million in reserves that will be needed to pay for the next waste management project.

"There's an opportunity to lower the rates again," she said. "But not this year."

Commissioners will have another budget workshop today, a tentative budget hearing Sept. 14 and a final budget hearing Sept. 26 before making their final decision on the garbage assessment rates for next year.

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