2021-11-24 EMC draft minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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10,000 lakes in Minnesota. It was an amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution that took 10 years to get passed, but it had a lot of public support. Whether that is something to look forward for in the State of is something worth sounding out. One concern is that Oahu would take all the money, and we and the other Neighbor Islands would get a piddle like we usually do. Commissioner Olson noted the comments about a fixed fee at the point of sale. He commented that he agreed all these bullet points are very valid, but none of this going to spring full-bore out of the ground. You will need to start with a minimum amount of funding to identify what the actual costs are. And you have some money to do that with, so it grows on its own, based upon the information that you garner. Its just going to be an ongoing process because what comes in, we have a lot of difficulty controlling. Its going to have to be a process that is ongoing in terms of what the actual fees would be. But as it is now, we dont have a budget to even start it. Where would the money come from to even get this off the ground? The fee may need to be changed based on the actual cost to dispose of something. Chair Adams said one thought is you put a dime on everything. Commissioner Olson said this is where you have to start, and you could loosely tie it to the denomination of the total sale. But we would need a funding stream to make this thing grow. It would grow to cover the actual cost of disposing whatever it is we are taking in. The County surcharge on the TAT also has some issues with being set up, Chair Adams. So there may be other learnings available to us from different activities. But it is a little bit of a different beast, and something she can talk about with Vice Chair Gaffney and Council Members Richards and Inaba, and start investigating what kind of ideas they might have to begin investigating how that might work. Director Mansour said that we must fund the Solid Waste Division programs. When the Solid Waste Fund was created, the intent was just to build the facilities and handle solid waste. Now it has grown to cover recycling, reduction, and diversion programs. So the idea is we have moved so far away from the main intent of that program. So what are the legal options that we have outside of taxes? Could we use the administrative rules to set collection fees or Pay as You Throw? Is that legal? What other legal maneuvering could we do to subsidize this type of program, because it is already part of the taxes? Commissioner Olson said the first thing we want to get away from is calling it a tax. It is a disposal fee. Director Mansour agreed. Most of the people who call us are under the impression we pay taxes for solid waste. A portion of the real property tax does go to offset the solid waste program. Therefore, we need to get a clear direction. When you go to the post office, you have to pay the fees to mail your package. Its a service. If we get clear legal direction from our 5