A 2006 Supreme Court decision, UNITED HAULERS ASSOCIATION, INC., ET AL. v. ONEIDA-HERKIMER SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY ET AL. upheld the right of counties to protect their taxpayers’ investments in public infrastructure. Nearby Lane County, for example, assesses a system benefit fee to private trash haulers like Waste Connections if they prefer to use trash dumping facilities outside of the county. On the face of it, this may seem like a penalty to Waste Connections but the company chose and was granted the right to do business in Lane County and the taxpayers should not be penalized in the form of lost revenue to maintain public infrastructure.
Waste Connections chose to do business in Coos County and took over smaller independent trash haulers who utilized the Beaver Hill Solid Waste incineration facility paid for by a voter approved bond. The company, after an offer to purchase the site was rebuffed a year ago, now delivers the county waste to outside landfills depriving the facility revenue and it has been proposed that a system benefit fee be assessed to Waste Connections, based upon tonnage, in order to protect the original taxpayer investment in exchange for the company being allowed to operate in the county. Coos County should not have to lose money to benefit a private company but Commissioner Cam Parry seems to favor the company over the constituents and at a recent meeting of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee made it clear that he though the taxpayer should bear the costs of Waste Connections operating here. [Begins approx 14:00]
A lot of things have been presented, a lot of things got on the table last meeting as far as ways we can approach this and move forward… I have been an advocate of somethings and not other things. There have been things put on the table like, oh um, some potentially punitive actions like forcing the waste load to stay in one place. I have never been a big fan of doing something like that, I don’t know how the other commissioners feel but I have always believed we can move forward positively…
Parry, in no uncertain terms is throwing the taxpayer under the bus in favor of a single business entity that chose to do business in the county and took over other companies to do so. The taxpayer should not see their asset put at risk when independent haulers could do the same job. A system benefit fee is not punitive punishment arbitrarily assessed against a company simply trying to maximize profits for its shareholders, if anything it is a cost of doing business. A system benefit fee is a legal tool, confirmed by the US Supreme Court, to enable our leaders to better protect our public investments and the commission have a responsibility to side with the taxpayer, not the company. Shame on Parry for shirking his responsibility and trying to hide it on all in feel good language about “moving forward positively”.
It should be noted that a representative of Waste Connections, Pete Smart, was in attendance at this meeting and Parry was probably playing to the audience but if Waste Connections feels it cannot achieve the profit percentages they require then let some small independents come back and help keep the profits locally instead of exporting them to Wall Street.
Randy Sanne recently went on record stating that Solid Waste is a stand-alone, for-profit facility that does not rely on the General Fund. If this is accurate then why does the facility need a price-fixing scheme? If they’re not making enough money, simply raise the tipping fees. Maybe if you ask nicely, folks will stop dumping on our county roads and pay the exhorbitant dumping prices associated with our very expensive incinerator.
Waste Connection is not a philanthropic organization. They have investors (some, no doubt, right here in Coos County), employees and sundry expenses, so I doubt they’ll ever feel a great need to subsidize our waste facility just to be nice.
And what makes you believe that a small, independent hauler would be able to pay the high tipping fees at Beaver Hill on a fixed collection contract and still be profitable? You claim Parry’s throwing the taxpayer under the bus, but you’re throwing the citizens of Coos County under the bus by proposing they pay 2-300% more than they are now to have their garbage collected – just for the privilege of burning it. Good luck selling that.
This comes to my mind, my dear mother had a favorite saying, “he’s like a f rt in a windstorm”.
And I think he’s in WAAAAAAYYYYY over his head .
Makes it really clear who Parry is working for.