09.03.2024 Pasco Board of County Commissioners Meeting (Public Hearing)

plant runs extremely well this funding is to expand its capability not restore it so again this is a $7 assessment increase which translates to a $6.39 tipping free increase year-over-year the imposed tipping the uh proposed tipping fee will go up to 9764 and the proposed residential assessment eru will go to 107 final rates will become effective October 1st 2024 and as you see in the next slide uh these residential annual costs fall well within the low end of the range from waste to energy communities you see a couple of the locations are set as proposed Pasco County Lake County uh City of Tampa some of the other communities have already set their rates but in any case we are certainly in a good spot in comparison of our total cost of service to our customers so with that the recommendation of solid weight staff is to approve the resolution establishing the proposed annual adjustment for the disposal assessments tipping fees and other rates fees and charges that fund a solid waste disposal and resource recovery system in addition to authorize the chairman to execute the two original resolutions for the board uh direct board records to distribute and set forth the distribution section and authorize the County administrator or designate to sign the final R role certification authorize staff to release the final role and related information to the property appraiser and tax collector okay uh at this time the record show that commissioner Mariana is at the de and and present okay thank you um are there any questions make a comment yes sir um you know I would say the board Pasco County years ago made a phenomenal move getting into this waste energy business um converting your waste to go saves space saves a lot of energy or creates a lot of energy that can can do a lot of good it's unfortunate we don't have the same support we had years ago the same contract but it's still a great way to go rather than using up space over and over again and hopefully in time federals will actually see it one thing I'd like to to see us do in the future a little bit more is to get the word out and that means if we got to go to to the schools to the children to get them to kind of get fired up more more recycling the misnomers that used to happen years ago like the plastic was still good to burn because it would create good energy well if the blast plastic Burns too hard it hurts the plant and they got to shut it down quicker so to increase that productivity to help us get even a higher yield I'd love to see you take it to the next step coming up to let's find out and I think all those Commissioners we' go to places as well to HOAs Etc to to to move it up and I think with the progress we made with condominiums that are now starting to get bins out there uh different retail establishments they understand that if they do recycle more they can cut their actual bill down that they have for disposal as well okay got it thank

you all right um I'd like to ask for a motion public excuse me public hearing is anyone here to speak to this item I do have one person signed up uh Miss Christina Fitzpatrick state your name and address for my name is Christina Fitzpatrick and per Florida statute I was a former Guardian at Li and I wish not to disclose my address to the entire County thank you um over the years they had increased $7 over the past 7 years and of course we're in year six the cost not only covers in the letter that we had all received the disposal assessment tip and fees and other rates and charges that fund the solid waste disposal and resource recovery system in accordance with the provisions of Pasco County the purpose of the assessment is to generate sufficient funds to cover operations maintenance costs and meet this service coverage as acquired by Bond Covenant and support the capital costs of the County Solid Waste Disposal system right there the word Capital costs these are additional expansions are necessary to keep up with the growth to keep up with being able to dispose of the trash and I am concerned if we are having new growth and everyone's always want to talk smart growth then why is a new growth not paying and helping towards the expansion instead of all of Paso County Citizens having to Bear the costs of the new growth for the incin incinerator um there are other ways to cut costs one consider the roll back and reduce the millage as listed on our property appra um as our forms through the new growth and increased property values where the where is the break even analysis if we have additional households that are coming in to help contribute towards the $100 or $17 where is the break even do we need to in continue to increase $7 every year when all this new growth is coming in and paying these additional costs um I'm going to jump down in an overall picture of establishing taxes cutting cost reducing millage there are ways to reduce the budget for example a few years ago I had mentioned we were paying $5 million in overtime expenses we have one more minute thank you in overtime expenses for firefighters it was we were able to hire an additional if we were able to hire an additional 40 firefighters at $86,000 fully loaded benefits that would cost $3.2 million therefore saving Pasco County taxpayers $1.8 million the overtime went to 6 million and it has now since Pasco County has hired all the new additional firefighters has been reduced to 3 million so Pasco County great job we Sav $3 million we need to start reallocating funds necessary where they need to be in addition I would like to mention one more thing about New Growth if you have a new fire station that costs $10 million a fire truck that costs $1.1 million you have an ambulance that costs