By BRIAN MCGILLIVARY
bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com
August 18, 2008 12:00 am TRAVERSE CITY -- Recycling drop-off bins in Grand Traverse County could be canned after a county board committee voted to kill the tax that supports them. County officials previously threatened to kill the tax, most recently in 2006. But public outcry over eliminating recycling bins helped persuade the board to extend and slightly increase the tax while it studied alternative funding sources. Two years later, the county is no closer to reaching consensus on an alternative funding source to replace a tax that ends Dec. 31. County officials said any replacement funding would take from six to 18 months to implement. Trash tax supporters don't believe they have the votes to extend it again. The county board will take up the issue when it meets at 7 p.m. Aug. 27 at Long Lake Township Hall. "I think we'll have a spirited discussion at the board and there might be some wiggle room ... but I think if you poll the board, a dramatic number support ending the tax," said county Commissioner Larry Inman. Inman and Commissioner Bruce Hooper support an extension, while Commissioner Wayne Schmidt is undecided. The remaining six commissioners want to eliminate the tax. "It is about the worst way you can collect money for a program," said county Commissioner Dick Thomas. A $9 per ton tax is collected on trash at area landfills and costs the average homeowner about $20 a year. It's one of the highest trash taxes in the state and generates around $700,000 annually. County officials estimate business pays more than half of the tax to fund mostly residential recycling programs. In addition, two thirds of the county's population lives within a local curbside recycling district, but still pays the tax to support eight drop-off bins at a cost of $380,000 in 2008. The county's three-year recycling bin contract with American Waste ends in December and can't be extended without putting it out for bids, county Administrator Dennis Aloia said. Thomas and several other commissioners want to dump the bins in favor of a countywide curbside recycling district. "If you have curbside, it's right there by your door and it costs you very little," Thomas said. "When you are talking almost half a million dollars a year (for drop-off), can we afford that so some people think they have a convenient thing." Several outlying townships are concerned about the cost of curbside recycling, and Aloia said he doubts the county can force those townships to adopt curbside recycling. "Personally, I don't think people will sit still for the drop-offs going away," Aloia said. Thomas suggested the tax could be extended for a time until a permanent strategy is devised. "I suspect we'll begin by cutting back on the drop-off sites and eventually they will be eliminated," he said.
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