Tipping Fee

Carroll's commissioners said yesterday that they will not make a decision about whether to increase the fee for dumping in landfills until they meet with private haulers.Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman recommended that they increase the tipping fee by $9.05 per ton. The current fee is $40 per ton.The commissioners must increase the fee to comply with new government accounting standards that require the county to charge a fee high enough to pay for future landfill operating and capital costs.

Carroll County could curb a tipping fee increase if it raised the charge to dump construction debris at landfills and levied a charge on yard waste, the county comptroller said yesterday.But the county commissioners weren't ready to make a decision about increasing the $40-per-ton fee, which they must do to comply with new government accounting standards that require the county to charge a fee high enough to pay for future costs.Instead, Commissioner Julia W. Gouge asked Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman to gather more information about how a system of charging by the bag instead of the ton could work in Carroll.

Municipal officials in Carroll County should anticipate an increased fee for dumping in landfills, but the county government will continue to search for ways to keep the costs low, the County Commissioners decided yesterday.Once again, the commissioners postponed voting on whether to increase the tipping fee. But they agreed that local governments should budget for a fee of $53 per ton for fiscal 1995 rather than the current $40 fee.Ms. Gouge initially opposed raising the fee, but she and Commissioners Donald I. Dell and Elmer C. Lippy eventually agreed that the towns should be prepared to pay an increased fee during the next fiscal year.

Carroll County commissioners postponed yesterday a vote on whether to increase the fee for dumping in landfills, after the county comptroller suggested a way to bring in more cash.Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman said the county should start weighing pickup trucks and multipurpose vehicles that bring trash to the landfills instead of charging a flat fee."We see pickup trucks with bumpers practically dragging on the ground," Mr. Curfman said.The three commissioners asked Mr. Curfman and other staff members to try to determine how much money could be raised by weighing pickups and multipurpose vehicles.

Carroll Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman yesterday repeated advice he gave the commissioners last April -- raise the tipping fee for dumping in county landfills to $53 a ton.But, like last year, the commissioners delayed making a decision.Commissioners Donald I. Dell and Elmer C. Lippy said they did not want to make a decision without Commissioner Julia W. Gouge, who was ill yesterday.The county needs to raise its tipping fee to help pay for building and operating future landfills, Mr. Curfman said.

Harford County's noisome trash disposal dispute with Bel Air could lead to a complete overturn of the $35-a-ton tipping fee charged users of the county's Scarboro landfill.An opinion letter from the state attorney general concludes that the tipping fee -- imposed to encourage and fund recycling programs -- is a tax that requires an enabling law passed by the General Assembly.There is no such enabling law; none was even filed during the last two annual sessions of the legislature. (One has now been drafted to meet the possible emergency.

Carroll commissioners voted unanimously yesterday not to increase the tipping fee for dumping in county landfills, but one commissioner warned that they are just postponing the inevitable."

The Carroll commissioners probably will increase the tipping fee for dumping in county landfills to $53 from $40 a ton this summer to help pay for building and operating future landfills.County Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman recommended the increase during a staff meeting yesterday.Two commissioners -- Donald I. Dell and Elmer C. Lippy -- said they didn't see a way to avoid the increase. Commissioner Julia W. Gouge said the county should recycle more and look into other ways to dispose of refuse.

Carroll's commissioners may have to increase the tipping fee for dumping in county landfills to help pay for maintaining landfills in the future.Beginning next year, Carroll must comply with "general accepted accounting standards, which require the county to charge a fee high enough to help pay future costs, Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman said yesterday.The current tipping fee is $40 a ton. About $34 of that is used to pay current operating costs and the rest goes to pay for future use, he told the commissioners during a staff meeting.

Harford officials, who have long battled rubble landfills, want to create a tipping fee for the county's only remaining private rubble fill, a move that would raise developers' tab for disposing of construction debris.County Councilman Barry T. Glassman has been lobbying the county's state delegates for legislation to give Harford state permission to create the fee.The proposed per-load fee, still unspecified, would be collected by the private fill and turned over to the county, which would use the money to increase the health department's budget, Mr. Glassman said.