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Immediately after presenting the revenue plan for the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget on May 12, Morristown City Administrator Tony Cox turned the Power Point page to Expenses Services and Projects.

Utilizing the phrase, “Let’s rip off the band aid,” Cox introduced City Council members to his plan for Solid Waste, which includes buying land for a Class III landfill and adding new cells to the existing landfill to provide an estimated 50 years of capacity.

The plan includes increasing tipping fees to $50/ton, as well as a proposal to increase monthly residential garbage fees from $15/month to $20/month.

“With the increase in rates to $20/month, we will increase the revenue needed to cover the higher costs of the landfill,” Cox announced

“I’ve received several inquiries,” Council member Kay Senter said during the follow-up budget work session held after the regular Council meeting on May 16, “about the $5 increase to $20 on the garbage fee. That is not an enterprise fund, so it doesn’t have to pay for itself.”

“We are trying to operate it as if it were, so that the fees do pay for the services,” Cox said. “The increase is entirely due to the increase of tipping fees at the landfill. We did as much as we possibly could in the last few years in terms of trimming our labor costs, by buying the ‘one arm bandit’ trucks; we’ve done a lot to make sure that it operates as efficiently as possible, but we simply cannot absorb the increase in tipping fees that will be coming when the landfill goes to $50 a ton.”

Senter’s next question, relating to how much revenue the additional $5 would raise, left Cox to calculate and provide the amount to the Council momentarily.

“I guess I ask that as ‘how much money did we need to generate,’” Senter continued.

Cox included in his reply a referral to the pie chart, “Solid Waste Operations,” which indicates that about a third of the landfill’s operating costs are tipping fees: “The $5 is to make us whole,” he said – “So, we’re projecting it will be about $700,000 to be generated (annually) by the increase in fees.”

“The tipping fees expenses to us (the city) went up 32%,” Chesney said, “and this represents about that much, in the increase.”

Council member Bob Garrett added, “There was talk that Nashville was going to pass a law. The legislature has been talking about it for several sessions. I don’t know where it stands, how it fared in this session, but it’s something the comptrollers definitely encourage,” Cox said.

City/County debt service for the new cell in the landfill? Not available. This is not covering any of that bond debt service, this $5? Senter asked.

“It is indirectly,” Cox said. “The landfill will pay debt service from their tipping fees. But we’re the ones going across the scales paying tipping fees to the landfill. So we’re paying it as a user of the landfill, not directly to retire the debt.

Purchases will focus on automated collection to include a back-up automated truck at a cost to the city of $500,000.

Cox included in the FY2024 budget plan new software for route management, a solution he said to design and manage sanitation, recycling and bulk waste meeting the needs of a growing community.

The sytem will allow for bulk waste and brush to be managed as an on-demand service rather than the scheduled route system currently in place.

During the May 16 budget work session, Council member Tommy Pegido, who serves as the Finance Committee Chair, shared an idea from the committee to find an additional $10,000 for the city’s social services allocations, capped at $250,000. The additional monies would be allocated to SafeSpace

The social services allocations for the FY2024 budget – totaling $250,000 – are as follows:

ALPS 13,000

Boys & Girls Club 16,500

Child Advocacy 1,000

Girls Inc. 15,000

Helping Hands 7,125

KMHB 19,950

MATS 8,000

M-H Child Care Centers 23,925

Rose Center 13,000

Senior Citizens Center 48,625

Senior Citizens Home Assistance 5,000

Stepping Out 5,000

McNabb Center 32,875

Boys & Girls Club Swim Team 10,000

Diversity Task Force / HOLA Lakeway 16,000

M-H Imagination Library Advisory Council 5,000

Friends of Hospice 10,000

New: Holston UM Home For Children 2,500

New: Morristown Composite SQ Civil Air Patrol 2,500

Social Services 250,000