‘Pay as you throw’ fair option

Thursday, March 3, 2011

To the Editor:

The average home in Merrimack generates two types of waste that the town has a service to handle. They have solid waste known as trash and waste water.

For those on town sewer, they get a bill twice a year that they pay to cover their portion of the waste water system. They pay a user fee. This is not a tax, it is not tax deductible. If you are not on sewer, you don’t get a sewer bill and you don’t pay for the waste water system. You could call it a “pay as you flush” system and it has been in place in Merrimack for more than 40 years.

But, in Merrimack every taxpayer pays for the handling of the other waste, solid waste. You don’t get a separate bill and all taxpayers are charged for it. Even taxpayers who don’t use the transfer station, pay for the handling of the trash. It is not done by a user fee. It is done by taxes. So why the difference?

“Pay as you throw” is being proposed and included in the next town budget to remove that difference. It is being done to shift the cost from every taxpayer to only those who use it.

PAYT will bring equity to the system and save the taxpayers at least $641,000 next year. It will no longer burden the majority of residential, commercial, and industrial property owners in Merrimack for having to pay for the trash disposal of one-third of the residential properties in Merrimack. These commercial and industrial properties are not allowed to use the transfer station like residents are. This will bring them some tax savings which may mean savings for their customers. We should not loose sight of the fact that commercial and industrial properties employ our residents, provide services to our community, and pay a significant portion of the overall tax burden in our town.

Looking at the numbers, you will see that 66% of the residential properties and 100% of the commercial/industrial properties are subsidizing the 33% of residential properties that do use the transfer station regularly. Beyond the increased recycling, I have to ask why Merrimack would continue to treat solid waste different from waste water. It is time for equity and time for us to support PAYT.

TIM TENHAVE

Merrimack