Leonardtown, MD — The Commissioners of St. Mary’s County have decided not to increase the Environmental and Solid Waste Service Fee for the next fiscal year. The proposal that had been presented at the April 14 budget hearing was to increase the annual fee from $60 a year to $84 a year for every dwelling unit.

The commissioners decided to delay implementation of the fee increase for at least a year after being told that the Solid Waste and Recycling Fund has a $1.6 million fund balance for contingencies. That was set by a previous board in 2007 according to Director of Public Works and Transportation George Erichsen. He told the commissioners they had one option to use part of that fund balance to cover the anticipated $1 million shortfall in the account that has previously been subsidized from the general fund.

The majority of the commissioners jumped on the idea of delaying the fee increase for at least a year. “We have too much money and it appears we can give this back at least for one year,” said Commissioner Mike Hewitt [R: 2nd District].

Commissioner John O’Connor [R; 3rd District] was the only dissenting vote to delay imposition of the fee increase. He said the $1 million could be reallocated for other needs, such as paying off the school board’s technology contract so that money could be used for salaries.

Commissioner Todd Morgan [R: 4th District] questioned whether monies in the solid waste fund could be transferred for other uses.

Commissioner Tom Jarboe [R; 1st District] in supporting the motion offered by Hewitt, said, “It makes perfect sense to me to defer it for one year.”

Erichsen noted that there would still be more than $600,000 still in the fund balance to cover any contingency that could arise in the next fiscal year. He said he didn’t anticipate anything.

Later in the meeting O’Connor (shown above) further clarified his position. He said he believed that enterprise funds, such as the Solid Waste and Recycling Fund, should be self-supporting. He said the taxpayers of the county would be paying that $1 million one way or another. He called the subsidy a “double tax” that could be used for other needed services.

O’Connor said there is greater transparency by covering the fund’s expenses with fees to pay for them.

Contact Dick Myers at dick.myers@thebaynet.com