Council questions proposed trash fee
Madden says $190 annual bill would distribute collection costs more fairly
The City Council wasted little time diving into the details of Mayor Patrick Madden’s proposed 2018 city budget after formally accepting the document Wednesday night.
Following a brief special meeting by the entire council to approve a city charter-mandated resolution affirming receipt of Madden’s $73.6 million general fund spending proposal, council members moved right into a twohour Finance Committee meeting at which they began an in-depth examination of the mayor’s proposal scheduled to continue through Oct. 30. On the slate for Wednesday’s review were the offices of the mayor and city comptroller, as well as vital statistics, city clerk, the council itself and the city auditor, but the meeting was dominated by discussion of Madden’s proposal to institute an annual fee of $190 per housing unit to cover the city’s solid waste disposal costs.
As Madden explained during the Friday news conference at which he unveiled his budget proposal last week, Madden and Deputy Comptroller Andy Piotrowski argued Wednesday that taking the estimated $3.5 million cost of collecting and disposing of city trash and recyclables out of property tax bills would allow the city to distribute the cost more equitably among those who use the service. As an example, Madden said two houses with identical assessments would pay the same tax bill — without figuring in applicable exemptions — but if one is a single-family home and the other a four-unit apartment house, the single-family homeowner is essentially paying four times as much for trash collection as the apartment house owner and their tenants.
Madden also argued that taking the cost out of the tax bill would also better insulate taxpayers from instability in the trash collection market where costs are expected to rise sharply as less and less landfill space becomes available and tipping fees — the amount
charged by landfill owners for accepting trash — skyrocket. He also said he was hopeful the fee would encourage residents and businesses to recycle more to lower the amount of trash the city has to pay for disposal of and, consequently, reduce disposal costs.
“We have got to change the behavior about solid waste in Troy,” Madden said, pointing out other municipalities have moved or are moving towards a user fee for disposal costs.
Council President Carmella Mantello, however, initially referred to the proposal as a “hidden tax” that would simply shift the cost and allow the budget to come in under the statemandated tax cap. She said she recalled considering a similar idea during her first council term two decades ago, but the idea was rejected.
Piotrowski said the proposed 1.17 percent tax levy increase includeed in M<adden’s budget proposal falls about $100,000 under that cap, but Madden admitted if trash costs continue to paid for out of taxes, city property owners would be looking at an increase in the neighborhood of the 14.5 percent hike he and the council finally agreed to in 2016 after contentious negotiations that ran past the Dec. 1 deadline to have a final spending plan in place.
“You’d have to decide which services you’d have to cut,” Madden said after Mantello asked what would happen if the fee were rejected. “[The cost of trash disposal] would have to come out of existing programs.”
Piotrowski explained the amount of the fee was determined by taking what he called direct and indirect disposal costs and dividing that number by the 18,175 housing units currently being charged a recycling fee that would instead be rolled into the mayor’s proposed solid waste charge. Under the proposal, existing exemptions to the recycling fee for seniors who receive the Enhanced STAR state tax exemption or property owners who use private collection services would be continued, but the city would also begin charging tax-exempt properties that currently use city trash pickup at no direct cost.
Councilman Mark McGrath, R-District 2, who said he has been working with retired corporation counsel Kevin Glasheen on a similar idea, suggested the mayor consider a bulkrate fee instead of a flat fee. McGrath said charging by the barrel would be even fairer than the mayor’s proposal because people would only pay for the amount of service they require. Both he and Mantello also argued residents may be even more likely to recycle if they see the result directly in their garbage bill.
Mantello also pointed out that instituting a collection fee would require City Council approval and asked why legislation wasn’t forwarded to the council before the budget was presented, though Madden’s procedure mirrors that of state government, where Mantello has worked for much of a career, currently as ligieslative director for state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury. The governor routinely introduces new policy initiatives first in the annual state budget before introducing needed enabling legislation later in the Assembly and state Senate.
“I feel it’s being done backwards,” Mantello said. “I agree with you [that solid waste costs need to be distributed more fairly]; I just don’t agree with throwing a $190 fee out there without a plan.”
Madden said accompanying legislation is being drafted and should be presented to the council next week. In the meantime, he said he was willing to work with the council to come up with a plan that would best serve the city and its taxpayers and residents.
“It’s only a first step,” Madden said of the proposed fee, “but we have to take that step.”