Vote on trash fee repeal will decide Rockland budget

ROCKLAND – When voters cast ballots Tuesday on a referendum to repeal a trash disposal fee program, the outcome will affect the city’s 2006-07 municipal budget.

If the pay-as-you-throw program stays intact, municipal appropriations increase 2.3 percent but the tax burden drops 1.64 percent, City Manager Tom Hall said last week, because nontax revenues have increased.

“Pay-as-you-throw plays a big role in that,” he said of the tax decrease.

The current tax rate is $16.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Under the trash disposal fee program, gross municipal appropriations are roughly $10,095,000, according to Finance Director Robert Armelin.

Should the fee program be repealed, municipal appropriations will increase by $500,000, he said, resulting in a 7.3 percent rise in appropriations over last year. The tax burden increase would be 7.11 percent, Armelin said.

Since the budget process began, the council has trimmed $63,945 from the originally proposed appropriations, he said.

In addition to municipal costs, the city’s Knox County assessment is $658,035, up 4.7 percent. The county tax does not include a $123,143 fee for dispatching services, which is part of the municipal appropriations. The city’s share of SAD 5 education costs is $6,532,753, up 8.021 percent, pending Tuesday’s school budget referendum.

In April, the effort to repeal the pay-as-you-throw plan was brought by a citizen petition with more than 700 signatures.

Many opponents of the fee program have spoken passionately at City Council meetings in arguing that the fee is just another tax. They insist the waste stream can be reduced by education and enforcement of city ordinances requiring recycling.

Councilors adopted the pay-you-throw program in March and approved accompanying fees the following month.

Those fees are as follows: $2.50 per 55-gallon trash bag; $1.25 per 33-gallon bag; and 50 cents for each 13-gallon bag. The disposal fee for commercial haulers would be $95 per ton. The petition suspended the program pending the referendum vote.

Residents will decide at the polls Tuesday whether to repeal the ordinance or support the disposal fees. A yes vote will eliminate the pay-per-bag ordinance. A no vote supports the fee program.

Fewer people have voiced support for the fee plan during council sessions.

One such supporter, David Allen, has said nontaxpayers and out-of-towners who use the transfer station will help pay the costs of running the facility. He figures those users will bring in “real dollars,” and the fees will give people an incentive to recycle.

As the budget stands, the costs driving city appropriations higher are wage increases, which are tentatively set at 3 percent, Hall said, and utility and fuel increases. Electricity costs are up 9 percent; water, 4.5 percent; and sewer, 9 percent, he said. Health insurance has jumped 9 percent, he added.

The city manager’s salary, which is presently $78,977, is still being negotiated, as are other employee wages.

The council will hold a public hearing and final vote on the budget Monday, June 26.

Voting on the referendum takes place 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday at the Recreation Center, 61 Limerock St.