trash fees

March 28, 2003

Officials differ on trash fees

By Brian Burns
Staff writer

After spending three hours Monday night wrestling with the “greased pig” that is next year’s town budget, FinCom members, selectmen and school committee members arrived at one conclusion: the current financial crunch isn’t going away anytime soon.

There was less of an agreement when it came to the steps that should be taken to address the problem, however.

Most school committee members were hoping that some of the cuts they are facing next year could be offset by instituting trash fees.

Others on the FinCom and the board of selectmen disagreed, saying that the fees would be a short-term approach to a long- term problem.

Remembering the promises they made before the last override, those

officials also worried about the political backlash of instituting fees.

Some officials spoke instead of a long-term approach that calls for the elimination of costly state mandates and the building of popular support for an override.

Others thought that the town should just tighten up its belt and deal with the cuts for the time being.

Without any supplemental funds for the school budget next year, the schools are looking at the elimination of 35 full-time teaching positions and 10 supporting staff positions.

School committee members said Monday that those cuts would represent an unacceptable reduction in services. “We can’t get past the devastating impact of 2004,” Michael Ryan said.

In an attempt to soften the blow, committee members said that they are preparing to institute parking, transportation and activity fees for students. They will also increase student athletic fees.

“We’re doing our part on fees,” School Committee chair Ed Thomas said. “We’re charging fees like it’s crazy.”

Committee members have also asked selectmen and FinCom members to consider a number of short-term ways to supplement funding, including the use of free cash and the implementation of trash fees.

Committee member John Desmond said that given the uncertainty of the budget situation in the coming years, the town should do everything it can to lessen the impact in 2004 and 2005.

Desmond said that while it might not be possible for selectmen to go for an override in time for next year, the board could institute trash fees.

Thus far, these suggestions have not found a great deal of support. Both selectmen and FinCom members said at a meeting last month that they wanted to limit the use of free cash to one-time expenses such as capital improvement projects.

The concept of trash fees received a similarly unenthusiastic response when it surfaced Monday night.

The town’s total trash collection budget for next year is $1.5 million. Taking out costs for condo pickups (which probably won’t happen next year) and for municipal waste removal, the total trash budget would be about $1.2 million.

Since not everyone in town would choose to participate in a fee-based program, trash fees would total $1 million, selectmen Chairman William Ryan estimated.

If everyone paid a flat rate for trash collection, it would cost each household about $200 per year for trash pickup, Ryan said. The numbers would be more skewed if the town implemented a pay-as-you throw program.

After hearing Ryan’s explanation, FinCom Chairman Al DeNapoli worried that implementing trash fees would cause a political backlash that would hurt them if they tried to go for an override in the next few years.

“It’s too knee jerk for me,” he said.

FinCom member Ralph Knobel said that starting trash fees without giving the taxpayers some input would be akin to an end-around override. If town officials want to implement fees, they should let voters decide, he said.

Selectman Judy Conroy, on the other hand, said that she still sees trash fees as a viable option. Residents don’t have the “God-given” right to have their trash picked up, she said, but they do have a right to an education.

As town officials, it is their responsibility to protect teachers and classroom sizes, Conroy said.

FinCom member Tom Bowen pointed out that implementing trash fees is not as easy as it sounds. The town has considered and abandoned the concept several times in the past, he said.

Bowen pointed out that the town is tied in to a solid waste contract until 2007. Town officials will still have to honor that contract even if they stop providing trash pickup.

“We still have to make the payments.”

Selectman Michael Caron said that while he was not philosophically opposed to instituting trash fees, he felt that rubbish collection was a service that could be done a lot more efficiently in town.

If there was one place where officials did agree Monday night, it was that even with the addition of trash fees, the town’s revenue structure is not equipped to handle the increasing demand for services.

FinCom Chairman DeNapoli said that a five-year projection of revenue and expenses shows that no matter how you slice it, the demand for services is outpacing the 2.5 percent growth that the town is allowed each year under Proposition 2 ½.

Both town and school officials agreed that if they are faced with another round of cuts a year from now, there would be drastic changes to the way that services are provided.

Boynton said that another round of cuts would mean that he would have to start closing town offices.

Superintendent Kathleen Smith said that another round of cuts could mean closing some school buildings and the loss of high school accreditation.

FinCom member Tom Jalkut said that to a certain extent, it was collective bargaining that put the town into a box. When all of the different contract incentives are factored into the equation (cost-of-living, lane changes, stipends, longevity) salaries are going up by five or six percent per year, he said.

Those costs that are almost impossible to contain when the town is limited to 2.5 percent growth, he said.

Visibly frustrated at the end of the meeting, Thomas said that he felt like they were still in the same spot they started in.

“Michael [Boynton] says he can get by next year. We can’t. Where are we going to go?”

Selectman Ryan said that anyone in the room who was looking for override or trash fees should realize that the six weeks between now and Town Meeting would not be enough time to do it in.

“What we have on the table is what we have. Let’s go with it.”

DeNapoli concluded the meeting by saying that they had wrestled the “greased pig” long enough for one night. “I’m at a loss of where further to go.”

Dec. 2002

Selectmen back condo trash pickup

By Tom Glynn
Staff writer

Agreeing it is only fair, selectmen say they want to provide town-funded rubbish pickup to condominiums.

Selectmen Chairman William Ryan also made it clear that he has no interest in trash fees or a pay-as-you-throw plan to underwrite the cost of condo pickups.

The board Tuesday night directed Town Administrator Michael Boynton to report by Feb. 1 how the additional pickup costs might be fit in the town budget for the fiscal year that begins next July 1.

Sixty or so condominium association members attended the meeting to emphasize the point that as full taxpayers, they should be receiving the same tax-funded services as the rest of the town.

Adding an estimated 750 condominiums, 10 percent of households in town, would increase pickup and disposal costs by a total of more than $100,000 a year, based on numbers in the final report the solid waste committee presented at the meeting.

The waste committee wants condos to get pickup and recycling service, Chairman Christopher McHallum told selectmen. But, McHallum added, the costs should be covered by adoption of the committee’s second recommendation: a townwide program that would require households to pay extra for putting out more than a specified number of containers for pickup.

Right now, the town allows a household to put out six barrels a week. For discussion purposes, McHallum said that number might be reduced to two, with additional barrels requiring pre-paid stickers.

Getting the "blended" free/pay system into operation would take time, he said, noting that the waste committee suggests that town-funded trash pickup and recycling for condos might be three or more years away.

But Ryan noted the condo owners have been waiting a long time for equity. "It is time… We’ll make every effort to somehow or another bring everyone on for a full year or a half year," he said, indicating a startup of either next July or Jan. 1., 2004.

Ryan noted that condo owners also are paying for their own plowing and road work.

Condo owners are getting fewer town services than other taxpayers as a result of concessions made years ago by the builders to win approval of their plans, he said.

The developers’ concessions are now your burdens, he told the owners.

Ryan noted that one of the benefits voters were promised in exchange for last year’s override is that trash pickup would be paid through the property tax and not by fees.

A full pay-to-throw program, with no tax support, could cost a household $300 a year, he said.

Selectman Michael Caron agreed with Ryan that the override last year means a continuing commitment that trash fees will not be imposed.

Beyond that, Caron noted, paying for trash collection and disposal through property taxes entitles the payer to a federal tax deduction. There is no deduction for fees, he noted.