Speaking of Trashby Bill McCabePublished in The Hudson Valley News 4/14/2010Once or twice a week we put the trash out at the curb or bring it to a re-cycling center. Then we don’t pay a second thought to what happens to it from there. Well, it’s time to start thinking because in the next few months the Dutchess County Legislators and County officials will be making significant decisions that will affect costs, fees, taxes, and the environment in Dutchess County. Most trash in Dutchess County goes to the County’s incinerator in the Town of Poughkeepsie (just south of the IBM complex) or to landfills outside of the county. A relatively small amount, just 11%, is re-cycled – in contrast to 20% in all of New York State and 32% nationwide. Some municipalities, such as Union Vale with a reported 35% recycling rate, are more conscientious than others, but a mere 11% county-wide is shameful. Since 1982, the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency (RRA) has had the responsibility to manage solid waste disposal in the county. The RRA is a public agency run by an appointed board and an executive director. A contracted private company does the actual work at the facility. Just about 50% of the county’s trash is burned at the incinerator; this leaves tons of toxic ash and puts an estimated 37,000 tons of carbon emissions into the air annually. Though the Resource Recovery Agency charges fees for haulers to dump at the incinerator, Dutchess County tax payers have always had to subsidize the plant operations. That subsidy has gone from less than $2 million in 2001 to $6.3 million in 2009. For 2010 the County Executive has proposed removing this subsidy from the regular budget, to be replaced by fees assessed on each household and business in the county and paid as a separate “user fee” added to our annual property tax bills. This fee/tax could raise over $8 million to cover this year’s deficit and other costs of “improvements” to the incinerator. That is a lot of money to be raised from taxpayers, and the County Legislature has so far, appropriately, refused to endorse this new tax scheme. |
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GETTING BEYOND BPby Bill McCabePublished in The Hudson Valley News 6/23/2010
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