Plan would make Wisconsin’s garbage fees highest in nation, group says
By Lee Bergquist <mailto:[email protected]> of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: May. 31, 2009
Effect of Proposed Tax Increase
Examples of estimated annual tax increases to municipalities, based on 2008 volumes:
* *City of Milwaukee: *$2.3 million
* *Mequon:* $17,036 (2,399 tons)
* *Wauwatosa:* $52,650 (14,831 tons) *
* *Cudahy:* $62,278 (8,772 tons)
* *Oak Creek:* $55,131 (7,765 tons)
* *Caledonia:* $46,440 (6,541 tons)
* *Menomonee Falls:* $62,792 (8,844 tons)
* *Mount Pleasant:* $49,726 (7,004 tons)
* *City of Pewaukee:* $32,975 (4,645 tons)
* *City of Oconomowoc:* $34,603 (4,874 tons)
* *City of Waukesha:* $116,306 (16,381 tons)
* *New Berlin:* $60,696 (8,548 tons)
* *Town of Waukesha:* $19,370 (2,728 tons)
* *Greenfield:* $60,960 (8,586 tons)
* *Franklin:* $60,483 (8,519 tons)
* *Muskego:* $49,083 (6,913 tons)
* *Waterford:* $17,566 (2,474 tons)
* *City of Brookfield:* $94,523 (13,313 tons)
* *Hartford:* $25,844 (3,640 tons)
* *Glendale:* $26,964 (3,798 tons)
* *Brown Deer:* $18,878 (2,659 tons)
/*Wauwatosa has a cost-sharing agreement on tipping fee increases with Waste Management./
Source: National Solid Wastes Management Association
Lawmakers’ decision to increase landfill charges will heap additional costs on local units of government, and a trade group says it would raise the tax to the highest in the nation.
The City of Milwaukee estimated that a recent vote by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee to sharply increase the tax on waste would cost the city an additional $2.3 million a year.
Waukesha would pay an estimated $116,000 more annually, and Brookfield would spend an additional $94,500, according to estimates supplied by the National Solid Wastes Management Association.
Smaller communities would also pay higher garbage bills if the measure passes both houses and is signed by the governor.
The tipping fees will increase the cost of doing business for landfills, according to the solid waste group, based in Washington, D.C.
Based on the group’s analysis, the higher tipping fees would make Wisconsin’s landfill tax the highest in the nation, pushing aside West Virginia.
The tax is added to charges by landfill operators to dump garbage.
The committee’s motivation was to find new sources of revenue to repair the state’s budget deficit. In this case, the tax would generate $63 million, phased in over the next two fiscal years.
Environmentalists have also championed higher charges because the funds have been used for recycling programs. In recent years, however, the fees have also been earmarked for other uses.
Environmentalists have also viewed higher fees as a way to discourage waste haulers from bringing out-of-state waste to Wisconsin landfills.
The influential committee recently voted 12-4 to more than double the tipping fee from $5.90 per ton to $13 per ton.
Gov. Jim Doyle has also viewed garbage fees as a new source of revenue. But he recommended a smaller increase, to $10.30 per ton.
Once the charges are rolled out over an entire year, the cost of the new taxes could total nearly $50 million annually, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
Taxing garbage “I think there is a viewpoint developing in Madison that this is a painless way to raise money,” said Lynn Morgan, a lobbyist and spokeswoman for Waste Management.
“But for local communities, this is very painful to provide money to the state.”
Said Jason Johns, a lobbyist for the National Solid Wastes Management Association: “State leaders are so desperate for dollars that they’re taxing your garbage, and meanwhile, people in Wisconsin are worried about putting food on the table.
” The new charges would affect garbage from municipalities, hospitals and schools, but not industrial waste from paper mills, foundries and utilities.
“This is the classic example of the underfunded mandate,” said Patrick Curley, chief of staff for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
Once the budget is approved, higher tipping fees and anticipated cuts in shared revenue would mean Milwaukee must increase property taxes, make cuts elsewhere or furlough employees, Curley said.
“Mayor Barrett doesn’t have the intention of throwing this all on the backs of the property tax payer,” he said.
The Joint Finance Committee also shifted funding for recycling.
For Milwaukee, it would mean $300,000 less for programs such as marketing, said Rick Myers, recycling specialist with the City of Milwaukee.
The result: More waste that should be recycled will be dumped in landfills, he said.
The amount of waste dumped into landfills, subject to tipping fees, remained relatively constant at 9.2 million tons a year between 2004 and 2007, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
It dropped 9% to 8.4 million tons in 2008, and with the economy reeling, it’s projected to fall to 7 million tons this year.
Illinois waste dumped here
Out-of-state waste has been a significant source of garbage in Wisconsin’s landfills, amounting to one-fifth to one-quarter of waste subject to tipping fees, DNR figures show.
In 2008, about one-third of 1.7 million tons of out-of-state waste came from Illinois to three landfills in Kenosha, Racine and Walworth counties.
Another one-third of out-of-state waste originated from Minnesota and was shipped to landfills in Douglas, Eau Claire and Washburn counties.
That’s why the higher fees have a benefit, said one environmentalist.
“Residents are watching their roads being torn up by garbage trucks from out of state. Seagulls are flying everywhere, and pollution leaks from landfills,” said Anne Sayers, program director for the League of Conservation Voters.
The league hailed higher fees as an impediment to bringing waste from other states.
Traditionally, the cost of land-filling was lower in Wisconsin than in many other states.
But setting aside the potentially higher charges, Morgan pointed to DNR figures showing the Wisconsin’s low-cost advantage may have disappeared.
The average total charges at landfills near the border are the same in Minnesota – $44 per ton – as Wisconsin, figures show.
In Illinois, the cost is $48 per ton.
*$2.3 million*
City of Milwaukee estimate on what the higher tax on waste would cost the city each year.
What’s the impact in your community?
See the list on *Page 5B*. EFFECT OF PROPOSED TAX INCREASE
Examples of estimated annual tax increases to municipalities, based on 2008 volumes:
*Mequon:* $17,036 (2,399 tons)
*Wauwatosa:* $52,650 (14,831 tons) *
*Cudahy:* $62,278 (8,772 tons)
*Oak Creek:* $55,131 (7,765 tons)
*Caledonia:* $46,440 (6,541 tons)
*Menomonee Falls:* $62,792 (8,844 tons)
*Mount Pleasant:* $49,726 (7,004 tons)
*City of Pewaukee:* $32,975 (4,645 tons)
*City of Oconomowoc:* $34,603 (4,874 tons)
*City of Waukesha:* $116,306 (16,381 tons)
*New Berlin:* $60,696 (8,548 tons)
*Town of Waukesha:* $19,370 (2,728 tons)
*Greenfield:* $60,960 (8,586 tons)
*Franklin:* $60,483 (8,519 tons)
*Muskego:* $49,083 (6,913 tons)
*Waterford:* $17,566 (2,474 tons)
*City of Brookfield:* $94,523 (13,313 tons)
*Hartford:* $25,844 (3,640 tons)
*Glendale:* $26,964 (3,798 tons)
*Brown Deer:* $18,878 (2,659 tons)
/*Wauwatosa has a cost-sharing agreement on tipping fee increases with Waste Management./
Source: National Solid Wastes Management Association</mailto:[email protected]>