The Crow Wing County Budget Committee reviewed proposed changes to county fee schedules just days before a public hearing and slated board adoption of the final 2019 budget and levy.
A summary of the proposed fee changes was presented at the Friday, Dec. 7, committee meeting. The fees would start New Year's Day if the changes are adopted by month's end.
"I don't think land services has had a whole view of the fees since we consolidated all the departments over there in land services, so I think this is the first time we've really gone through it ... a full review of what were land services fees," Finance Director Jason Rausch explained.
Among the proposed changes in the summary is that land services fees were broken down by programs and services, such as environmental, assessing and customer services.
"There is actually, I think, kind of a substantial increase," Commissioner Paul Koering said of proposed increases to fees related to solid waste disposal. "But we were losing money on the mattresses, and we were losing money on the electronics and the sofas and sofa sleepers."
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Other solid waste proposed fee changes include an increase from $14 to $28 to dispose "dirty" mattresses in the county landfill, an increase from $7 to $14 to recycle queen- and king-sized mattresses and springs, and an increase from $5 to $10 to recycle 28-inch or larger televisions.
"That doesn't mean we're making money. We're actually getting closer to breaking even," Koering said.
A separate charge was added for sleeper sofas, unrelated to other types of furniture, because the mattress and springs are part of a sleeper sofa, and the fee was increased to $14.
"We felt that if we get too carried away, they're just going to dump them down the side roads ... so at least this helps us get closer to breaking even," Koering said of mattresses in general.
Other items of interest related to different county departments include a new $30-per-day impound fee by the sheriff's office and no change to fees related to county financial services.
"One of the other issues we're facing at the landfill is out-of-county folks bringing stuff to Crow Wing because our rates are pretty favorable to Aitkin, Cass and Morrison as well, but mainly more Aitkin folks and some Cass spillover," Land Services Director Gary Griffin said.
"We know there's always going to be some of that yet seems like what we're hearing from our operator is the volume from out-of-county folks has increased quite a bit, and it's always problematic to know exactly are they from in county or not."
The board of commissioners will host a public hearing about the fee changes at 9:15 a.m. Dec. 26 in the third-floor county board room at the county historic courthouse in Brainerd.
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"While we double these fees, we also are going to double the amount of the coupon that we send to every property owner in the county, so that's a way to help," Griffin said.
For mattresses or bedsprings to be recycled, they must be clean, dry and visible for inspection by the landfill office attendant; for mattresses to be recycled, they must be free of bedbugs.
"The fees go up for everybody, but if you live in Crow Wing County, we're also going to give you, like, a $10 coupon instead of $5 to assist with some of that increase, so we think that we can better target the folks that live here," Griffin said.
"We're getting about a 12 percent return on those. We would like to see that doubled or tripled. ... We're not going to stop, I don't think, unless we do something way more aggressive-the out-of-county waste-and this helps us get closer to the black."
County Administrator Tim Houle said at last month's committee meeting no service the county provides is truly free of cost, given it involves staff time and resources, so the question is how much to charge someone for the service or whether county taxpayers as a whole pay for it.
Houle said at a prior committee meeting: "We highlighted the ones that were under because of the context that we're in. Do you want to lower the levy, then it would be to increase these, but you can also choose to lower (these fees), but it has the potential to create a budget hole."
County commissioners said they would like to reduce the 2019 preliminary levy of 6.99 percent. Some of them on the budget committee explored at the Nov. 2 meeting if raising county fees for services would generate a significant enough amount of revenue that it would lower the proposed levy.
"The biggest change ... is stormwater permit fee (under shoreland alteration)," Griffin said of the $100 fee.
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Stormwater that is not managed can have "devastating consequences on the quality of lakes, streams and rivers," according to land services officials, because stormwater often contains oil, chemicals, excess phosphorus, toxic metals, litter and disease-causing organisms.
For residential property, the county land use ordinance allows up to 25 percent of the total lot area to be comprised of hard surfaces. If the percentage of impervious surface is greater than 15 percent, a stormwater management plan and stormwater permit is required.
"We've had an incentive ... that if you implement that stormwater plan within the first year, you get $75 of that back, and if you do it in Year Two, it's $50-permits are good for two years to get that work done-but our proposal is to do away with those refunds," Griffin said.
"The majority of these projects, getting $75 or $50 back, is not a decision-maker for pretty much almost anybody, and it's more of an administrative time kind of issue for us to keep track of that and then give money back than anybody using that and going, 'Oh! I'm going to do it quicker.'"
Last December, the board passed a reduced levy for 2018 for the eighth consecutive year, but it approved the 2019 preliminary budget in September with a proposed levy increase of 6.99 percent.
Driving the county's 2019 preliminary budget and the county's expenditures are increasing methamphetamine use in the county and rising employee health insurance costs.
The county board will host a public hearing about the 2019 budget, levy and capital improvement plan for the county at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, in the third-floor county board room at the county historic courthouse in Brainerd.
For more information about the Dec. 26 public hearing about proposed county fee changes-or the Tuesday public hearing about the 2019 budget, levy and capital improvement plan-call the county administrator's office at 218-824-1067.
