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5/27/2009
Doyle gets $millions via the Garbage Tax
A week or so ago, Rep. Karl Van Roy (R – Green Bay) wrote a great piece about garbage. Well, I thought it was great, because the Recycling Fund (and fund transfers) is something I’ve been griping about for years. Another fund that our hard-earned bucks go into – and lo and behold, Governor Doyle (and the legislature, let’s be honest here) confiscates it for other stuff. It’s really maddening – and it’s especially maddening because when the Recycling Fee goes up, that goes straight to your tax bill. Straight. I saw it when I was on the Council for 10 years worth of budgets. The county’s cost for dumping increases and they pass it on 100% to the City. Smooth and easy. And really maddening!
Anyway, Karl tells the tale well, with all of its slight-of-hand millions ($166M and counting!) stolen for completely unrelated programs. (Emphases are mine.) JE
During the 1990's, Wisconsin enacted legislation to encourage recycling and waste reduction, including prohibiting certain items from being placed in landfills and establishing financial assistance payments to local governments to operate local recycling programs. To fund these programs, businesses and municipalities pay a variety of surcharges and tipping fees on every ton of solid waste disposed of in landfills throughout the state. Essentially, tipping fees are taxes paid on garbage.
In the 2007-09 budget, the tipping fees were increased from $3.80 to $5.90 per ton, a 55% increase. In the 2009-11 budget that is currently being debated, Governor Doyle proposes to increase [and JFC passed 5/23] the tipping fees yet again from $5.90 to $10.30 per ton, a 75% increase.… According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau budget summary, the fee increases alone will generate $48.6 million dollars in additional funds above beyond what is currently collected under the current fee structure.
Without a doubt, waste management companies will pass on these tipping fee increases to their customers if they are signed into law. That means municipalities will pay more, which in turn could lead to higher property tax bills; landlords will pay more, which in turn could lead to higher rent being charged; businesses will pay more, which in turn could lead to higher prices customers pay for the goods and services they receive.
These fee increases are unacceptable tax increases on Wisconsin residents and businesses, especially in the midst of a recession.
According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, between 1991 and 2008, $107.5 million was transferred from the recycling fund to the state's general fund to pay for programs completely unrelated to recycling, even though it is supposed to be a protected segregated account. In the current budget, an additional $31 million is expected to be transferred from this account to the general fund.
[And how about this?] In his proposed 2009-11 budget, Doyle completely eliminates the Clean Sweep Grant Program, the Recycling Efficiency Incentive Grant Program, and the Waste Reduction and Recycling Demonstration Grant Program. These programs were all funded by the Recycling Fund and clearly relate to the goal of reducing waste in our landfills. Instead, Doyle takes the money from those programs, and uses it to pay for the creation of a new UW System Bioenergy Center. ($8M, $4M each year)
Furthermore, Doyle's budget proposes to take $27 million collected from the environmental management tipping fee to pay the costs of debt service on outstanding government bonds. Like the recycling and transportation funds, this is also supposed to be a protected segregated account. Yet again, the funds are being used for something other than their intended purpose.
Some justify these exorbitant fee increases as a way to discourage out-of-state waste from being put in our landfills. The facts are that 80% of the solid waste in our landfills is generated from Wisconsin sources, and the fee increases over the years have proven to be ineffective at decreasing the amount of out-of-state waste being imported. In reality, these fees only serve as a punishment to us because the vast majority of the tax increases are being paid by Wisconsin businesses and homeowners without any benefit in return.
During these financially difficult times, government should not be increasing costs for Wisconsin residents and businesses and making it even harder for those who are already struggling to keep their heads above water. Increasing the garbage tax will do nothing to improve our state's economic picture.
Karl Van Roy is a Republican and represents the residents of the 90th Assembly District.
COMMENTS
Yet another reason to recall Doyle now; see www.recalldoyle.com
emily matthews (Wed May 27 08:32:12 2009)
This is nothing less than a slight-of-hand shell game! To a degree, this is also a Ponzi scheme! The only person in the general news that is better than Gov. Doyle at shell games and Ponzi schemes is Madoff!
Paul (Wed May 27 11:21:14 2009)
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