LOCAL HAULERS: Just Say No to Tip Fees

Submitted by local Greenwich Haulers

RESIDENTS will pay $100’s more yearly for their garbage to be transported to Holly Hill by their hauler!
Businesses, offices, restaurants, schools, housing authority, government buildings, etc, will pay $1,000’s more yearly for their garbage to be transported to Holly Hill by their hauler.

• Why discriminate against residents who choose to have a hauler vs residents who take their own garbage to The Holly Hill Transfer Station (it all ends up in the same place). RESIDENTS WHO TAKE THEIR OWN GARBAGE WILL PAY $25 PER YEAR to use the transfer station; it will only cost them $2.08 per month. Yearly tonnage from residents who take their own garbage to the transfer station is approximately 4,650 tons, this COSTS THE TOWN OVER $500,000 YEARLY. Currently the town is assuming they will issue 1,200 permits that would only raise $30,000 yearly. WHO WILL PAY for this DISCREPANCY OF OVER $450,000 for residents who take their own garbage – of course OUR TAX DOLLARS! (Oh, by the way, the town would have to sell 20,000 permits to cover the $500,000 cost). If we SUBSIDIZE RESIDENTS WHO TAKE THEIR OWN GARBAGE to the transfer station, we should subsidize every resident including residents who have haulers, or that is DISCRIMINATION.

RESIDENTS THAT NEED ASSISTANCE, who are not able to take their garbage and recycling to the Holly Hill Transfer Station for a $25 permit, are FORCED to have a hauler transport their material. They are punished and discriminated against because they are not subsidized and will PAY MORE DUE TO THE NEW TIP FEES. Examples below:

o Resident that don’t have a driver’s license;
o Residents that don’t own a car;
o Elderly who can’t drive;
o Residents who are handicapped.

• The residential property tax with a 1% increase would only cost the average household approximately $85.00 PER YEAR. This is the most COST-EFFECTIVE way. This system HAS WORKED for over 75 years. If the towns waste removal cost is left in your taxes it becomes an income tax deduction. If you pay a tipping fee through your private collector, it is not tax deductible.

• For everyone’s information WESTPORT AND TRUMBULL DO NOT charge the haulers a tip fee for RESIDENTIAL GARBAGE, it REMAINS in their TAXES like GREENWICH.

STAMFORD AND DARIEN HAVE TIP FEES, but they ALSO have a SPECIAL SEWER CHARGE based on the amount of water each property uses. Greenwich does not. Greenwich never acts like the other 169 towns in Connecticut.

• The proposed Tip Fee of $112 per ton is one of the HIGHEST IN THE STATE.

• Transfer Stations FEES FOR RESIDENTS who take their OWN GARBAGE in NEIGHBORING TOWNS are charged between $95 and $125. WE started at $75 and now we are down to $25. This DOES NOT COVER THE $500,000 COST TO THE TOWN for residents who take their own garbage.

• This “HOLE” IN THE BUDGET STARTED because of the additional cost of $912,000 TO haul away OUR RECYCLING. LOOK WHERE IT HAS TAKEN US.

• If we REMOVE, the “HOLE” in the budget for garbage what INSTEAD is being placed in that “HOLE” of approximately $3.7 million dollars?

• Everyone is experiencing hard times not just residents, small owner operator shops to large companies. We are DELAYING PROPERTY TAXES! As a representative of our town, ask yourself if it IS FAIR IF WE DON’T DELAY THE DECISION ON TIP FEES?

• How can you expect the UNEMPLOYED AND BUSINESSES, which have been CLOSED for months, to be reopened and FINANCIALLY STABLE in just a few months from now? It will take more than that few months just to catch up on back bills, if even possible. Many will not recover and be out of business. How can Greenwich town residents and commercial enterprises be expected to pay the additional hundreds to thousands of dollars a year to cover the new Tipping Fee? WHERE IS YOUR COMPASSION?

• We request of The Board of Selectman, the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and the GREENWICH REPRESENTATIVE TOWN MEETING that NO NEW TIPPING FEES, or such charges to the public FOR THE DISPOSAL OF REFUSE, garbage, recycled goods, and all municipal solid waste be instituted by the Town of Greenwich FOR A PERIOD OF ONE YEAR.