The Division of Solid Waste and Recycling (SW &R) expects to receive $937,000 from Hennepin County in SCORE revenue in 2002. Hennepin County receives the funds from the State, and then distributes the funds to the cities in the County by proportion of the households in each City.
If SW & R did not receive these funds, I would identify options for "making up" the revenue. If we happen to have a great year for sales of our recyclables (similar to 2000), it is possible that these funds could partially make up the offset. If we have a "short" yard waste season (drought, or a dry Spring and/or Fall), the reduced yard waste expenditures could contribute to balancing the budget. Ditto if we have lower than expected garbage generation and therefore disposal costs. If these "easy" targets are not possible, I will look to reducing other expenditures (equipment purchases, shortening the yard waste collection season, reducing education expenses, etc.) Options for cost savings/revenue enhancement would be presented to the Council, with a recommendation for their consideration from staff (me). The "Bottom Line" is that the Division is an Enterprise Fund, and I have to balance my Expenditures to stay within my Revenues each year. The later in the year that I learn about revenue shortfalls or unanticipated costs, the fewer options I have to reduce expenditures. For instance, all trucks and equipment have to be ordered by March 15 to ensure delivery for payment in the Fiscal Year; by September 1, most of our Yard Waste cost center is expended, etc. In 1999 a very exhaustive study was made by the Council for service and revenue decisions in the SW & R Fund. They did not at that time recommend curtailing any services, and did not reduce the Recycling Rebate. Historically, the Council and Mayor have considered the Recycling rebate to be "off the table" when fund balancing decisions are made. Recycling is a high cost operation---it does cost us more to collect and process our recyclables than it does to collect and dispose of garbage. However, the State and the City have made the policy determination that recycling is an important activity--the State requires us to provide recycling services, and the City has made the policy decision to "reward" customers for their efforts to recycle. I would not expect that the City would reverse this long-standing policy by reducing the recycling credit to those customers that make an effort to recycle. Sincerely, Susan Young, Director Division of Solid Waste and Recycling aka: The Trash Lady -----Original Message----- From: Scott McGerik [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 4:15 PM To: Minneapolis Issues Forum Subject: Re: [Mpls] Save state funding for nhood recycling On Tue, 5 Mar 2002, Sean Gosiewski wrote: > There is a budget cut from the House, that is being strongly proposed that > would cut $10 million (of approximately 14 million) in funds that go to > local governments for source reduction and recycling (SCORE FUNDS). > > It would basically abolish this funding. These are funds that must be used > on source reduction and recycling - the state auditor's recent report > regarded this program as being very successful. How would this affect the City of Minneapolis? What programs in Minneapolis are funded by this fund? Would the Division of Solid Waste have to eliminate the recycling credit that appears on our garbage bills? Scott McGerik Hawthorne/Minneapolis http://www.mcgerik.com/scott/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
