Agenda - Council - 09/13/1982 - Special

Home

I I I ! I I I I ,I I I I '1 I I '1 I 33 A few states have established contingency funds available to host communities that are much broader in scope. New Jersey is a particularly good example. In 1981, the New Jersey Legislature passed the Sanitary Landfill Closure and Con- tingency Fund Act to supplement the state's Solid Waste Management Act. The contingency fund is established primarily to provide compensation for damages resulting from improper opera.tion or closure of sanitary landfills. Compen- sable damages include the cost of restoring, repairing or replacing personal property or natural resources. Money in the contingency fund can also be available to cover income lost because of improper operation or closure of a landfill, and medical expenses incurred for the same reason. A provision of New Jersey's Solid Waste Management Act provides that communities hosting land- fills are entitled to an annual payment in lieu of taxes. Such communities are entitled to reduced rates for services provided by the solid waste abatement management district for any solid waste disposal in the community. In addition, New Jersey's hazardous waste law establishes a contingency fund to compensate host communities for damages caused by operation or closure of a hazardous waste facility. Compensable damages include real and personal pro- perty damages, lost income due to ill health and loss of business. The law also requires that if a hazardous waste disposal facility is constructed on tax exempt property, the owner or operator of the facility has to pay the affected municipality an amount equal to the what would be annually due if the facility were located on taxable property. Kentucky is another state that provides compensation to communities hosting hazardous or solid waste disposal facilities. Counties in Kentucky have the authority to tax the gross receipts of solid and hazardous waste disposal operators to defray the general costs incurred by the county. Connecticut, like Kentucky, has laws that allow communities to tax either the gross receipts of hazardous waste disposal facility or the volume of waste the facility operators receive. Maryland has a provision in its hazardous waste facility siting law for a state to compensate a community for taxes lost on a state-owned hazardous waste facil- ity. The state is required to make payments to the community in lieu of taxes. The cost of these payments will be included as part of the project costs and may be recovered by the state from users of the hazardous waste facility. Unlike other states that require compensation according to formulas, Massa- chusetts allows the community to decide how much compensation it wants. The Massachusetts law enables a community to negotiate with a facility developer for appropriate amounts and types of compensation with the state acting as a mediator in the negotiation process. When a community enters into a siting agreement with a hazardous waste facility operator, the agreement must include a statement of services to be provided by the developer for the host community; a provision for tax prepayments or accel- erated payments, or payments needed in lieu of taxes; compensation services and special benefits to be provided by the developer; and a provision for direct monetary payments from the developers to the host community in addition to other provisions.