Agenda - Council - 09/13/1982 - Special

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I I I I ! I I I I I I I I I ! 21 If l~mp-sum payments are made to individual property owners or residents near a facility, there is a problem of determining who should-be compensated. It may be very difficult to draw the line between those people who would be compen- sated and those who would not.. There are also questions where a landfill site lies in more than one commu- nity. In such a case, should both for all} communities be compensated? Should they be compensated equally? If the access route and entrance to the facility is in one community and only a part of the site is in the adjoining community, how much compensation should be paid to each? Clearly, it would be difficult to determine an appropriate division of the compensation payment. If monetary compensation appears to be appropriate in some cases, some mecha- nism or procedure must define who is eligible for compensation, how much com- pensation they should receive and whether payments should be made at one time or on an ongoing basis. An indirect form of monetary payment is to give host communities free garbage pickup or free disposal. Where a landfill straddles the boundary separating two communities, both communities would be eligible for free garbage pickup or disposal. Free garbage or refuse disposal would not encourage recycling or waste abatement activities. INCREASED PROPERTY TAXES A host community may compensate itself by requiring payment of higher property taxes from the facility than would be required for a property of comparable value. Sanitary landfills in the Metropolitan Area are assessed at the rate of commercial property--much higher than that required for agricultural land. Another option is for a host community to require a waste disposal facility owner to pay property taxes on an accelerated schedule. Taxes could not be levied if the facility were publicly owned. However, coun- ties or other public units that own facilities could possibly pay the host com- munity an amount equal to what a privately owned facility would be assessed. Essentially, the public agency that owns or operates the facility would be required to make a monetary payment to the host community in lieu of taxes for property taken off the tax rolls. If the landfill is considered an interim land use, the monetary payment would cease upon closure of the landfill. TIPPING FEES Such fees are levied either on the amount of waste delivered to a facility or on the gross receipts of the facility operator. Revenues from the tipping fees could be used to deal with specific impacts, such as road repairs, used to finance a liability or emergency response fund. This technique is discussed in more detail in the section on financing compensation measures. Although tipping fees are paid by facility operators, the cost is passed on to the waste generators. This may have the effect of encouraging waste reduction.