Orange County NC Website
4 <br />more haulers would have the incentive to use an alternate site: thus, a spiral of increasing tipping <br />fees and lost tonnage would continue to feed upon itself. . <br />Table 2 estimates the loss of tonnage and tipping fee revenue each year, if the tipping fee were <br />revised to provide the revenue necessary to ,implement .the SWMP; it does 'not attempt to project <br />the rest of the spiral of continued diversion. Table 2 also shows what the tipping fees would <br />need to be, assuming the first wave of diversion, to finance the Solid Waste Management Plan. <br />Raising the necessary revenue for the SWMP implementation solely through the increase in <br />tipping fees was initially considered untenable by the Landfill Owners Group and was the basis <br />for the formation of the Alternative Finance Committee to study other options. <br />Points for Discussion <br />• If the jurisdictions continue to fund the full cost of tipping fees through property taxes, then <br />the system will continue to lose any potential revenue from tax-exempt properties which are <br />receiving waste reduction services. <br />• The increase in the cost to the local governments of the higher tipping fees .would be the <br />equivalent of the following in terms of pennies on the tax rate for FY 1999-2000. <br /> Assuming no loss of tonnag e Assuming loss of tonnage <br />1. Carrboro ~ $0.02048 ~ $0.04331 <br />2. Chapel Hill 0.01972 0.04170 <br />3. Hillsborough ~ 0.03983 0.08401 <br />4. Orange County 0.00416 0.00880 <br />One difficulty revealed through this mechanism is that each jurisdiction will adjust its own <br />tax rates to fund the increased tipping fees. Orange County would be spreading its increased <br />tipping fee cost over a tax base that encompasses both .the incorporated and unincorporated <br />areas of the County. Thus, residents of incorporated Carrboro, Hillsborough and Chapel Hill <br />would be paying twice, through their county taxes and through their municipal taxes.. This <br />situation exists now. <br />• Through their tipping fees, privatelcommercial haulers now contribute to the cost of waste <br />reduction programs.. But, when tipping fees rise high enough for commercial- waste to be <br />diverted to other disposal facilities, then individual taxpayers would be subsidizing the costs <br />for commercial waste reduction and recycling programs. <br />II. - Property taxes as sole source of financing. <br />The Commitii<e asked what-the impact on property taxes would be if that were the sole support <br />of the Solid Waste Management Plan implementation. Because the plan was developed as a <br />unified countywide .plan we have assumed that the question refers to the impact on Orange <br />County taxes. In this way, all Orange County residents would be charged for solid waste <br />~~ <br />