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13 Memorandum From: Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste Management Director To: Solid Waste Advisory Group Subject: Summary of Report on Solid Waste Fees in Select NC Counties Date: January 29, 2015 The SWAG requested information on financing mechanisms in use elsewhere in North Carolina counties that operate Solid Waste Convenience Centers (SWCCs) and use availability or other annual fees to fund all or part of their solid waste operations. Staff managed a review of solid waste funding mechanisms used by fifteen counties; among them are those that were selected because they have demographic or geographic characteristics that might be similar to Orange County or other features of the fee structures that enable comparison. The key findings of the review are that none of the counties fund their programs exactly the same and all use a variety of mechanisms that combine various funding sources and incorporate a variety of limitations and application characteristics that make easy comparisons problematic. The general fund is often used to support or supplement aspects of services and facilities, including various overhead functions. Knowledge of the intricacies of the fee applicability and administration also varied considerably with some county contacts having minimal detailed understanding of their fees with several uncertain whether their fees were in fact availability fees as defined by statute. There is no one apparently 'best' way to fund solid waste systems that include convenience centers. Some counties rely primarily or exclusively on solid waste fees and use varying terminology to describe their fees which can make interpretation a bit tricky. In this review we attempted to include only those counties that used some type of availability fee that was charged to a whole class of potential users irrespective of use of program or service and excluded user fees that are based on use or non -use of a program or service. Some counties combine availability fees with general fund and other revenues such as recycling material sales or state funds. Some provide trash and /or recycling collection services while others offer only use of convenience centers for the public monies used. Some operate as enterprise funds and some do not.