December 8, 2007
Town officials look for property tax relief
By Dirk Perrefort
DANBURY -- Property tax relief was on the minds of most municipal officials Friday when they met with area lawmakers to discuss their agenda for the upcoming legislative session.
Members of the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected officials discussed several issues that affect property taxes, including a town's portion of the real estate conveyance tax, which is currently at .25 percent but is slated to return to .11 percent this summer. Town officials said they rely on the revenue stream provided by their share.
[Non Bottle-bill portions of article removed]
HVCEO members also supported the agenda presented during the meeting by the Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority. Cheryl Reedy, director of the authority, said it is opposed to efforts that would apply a five-cent deposit to plastic water bottles -- a proposal that was met with fierce opposition during last year's session and failed to pass.
Reedy said the proposal doesn't make sense environmentally because curb-side recycling services would use less fuel overall than residents bringing the bottles to grocery stores.
"Some environmentalists will argue that more bottles will be recycled as a result of the proposal, but we feel it will waste more fuel," Reedy said. "We will try to work in this region to model a curb-side collection system that can really make a difference."
Reedy said while the state requires mandatory recycling of glass, the authority has to pay to get rid of it. The authority, however, can sell plastic water bottles for $600 per ton.
"The third reason why we oppose the bottle bill is that we would lose some revenue," she said.
Reedy said the authority is also opposing efforts to require trash haulers to be licensed by the state. She said other states that have licensing requirements still have problems with mob influences in the industry.
"Yes, we have to keep the garbage industry free from mob influence, but licensing is not the way to do that," she said.
Contact Dirk Perrefort at dperrefort@newstimes.com
http://www.newstimes.com/ci_7669874
