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Minutes - Regular Meeting Solid Waste Advisory Board November 5, 2009 Approved December 3, 2009 Sassaman states that when looking at paying for the convenience centers by user fees we get back to the argument that Remus and Al remember from eight years ago when we talked about a fee is a tax by another name but there is no rebate from Uncle Sam . Vickers states that the issue was that it is the way Orange County is set up that if you go to a tax, half the users don' t pay anything because they are tax- exempt. Pollock notes that' s where a user fee could work . Sassaman states that that is the other side of the coin and what is the most appropriate way to deal with the convenience centers ? Is it to have the user fee or use fee or an availability fee for everyone in the county ? Vickers states that that is a discussion that will take several meetings to go through the equity of those issues . Once the determination is made that there is to be a fee the county has to determine what is a sellable option . What came out of the meeting was a recognition by the County Commissioners that at some point there has to be a system that the users pay in some form for SWCCs . Funding should have to come off the tax rolls as a budget item and go into an enterprise fund at some point. How that mechanism works is something that needs to be worked out. Pollock states that the purpose of this group and the work group is to help the commissioners by providing some input into that. Sassaman states that one of the things that is bothering me is that the work group and to some extent the SWAB is being asked to deal with some issues that may not be appropriate for us to deal with . Some of the specific financing decisions are political and should be in the hands of the politicians . What we need to be addressing are things like . ' Are the convenience centers goodT We ' ve answered that. How fancy they should be depends on how much money is available and there is a trade -off between one or two fancy sites that not everyone can get to . The comment was made [by Yuhasz] that maybe there should be a couple of super centers and then some smaller centers through out the county . Smith states that two friends that live in the Cedar Grove area told me that they are in favor of curbside pickup of garbage and recycling and are willing to pay a little for it. They are also willing to pay a little for more and closer recycling centers . I feel that this is the way we should go . They made the point that they did not want to start burning or dumping . If it takes us to make a recommendation, I want to do both curbside and more convenience centers . Sassaman states that how that is paid for may be a political decision. 4