again receive state funds
for anti-litter efforts
Municipalities will
again receive state funds
for anti-litter efforts
By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer
The state’s budgetary mess aside, keeping the Garden State clean remains a priority.
Gov. James E. McGreevey recently signed the Clean Communities and Recycling Grant Act, which is expected to generate some $14 million in taxes on businesses and channel most of it to local and statewide litter abatement and education programs, Adopt-A-Highway campaigns and graffiti cleanup.
The measure establishes a permanent, revolving Clean Communities Fund, administered by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The bill also aims to revive recycling programs suffering from economic hard times by making county and local governments eligible for grants totaling up to $4 million that are specifically for recycling and source reduction of solid waste.
McGreevey said the act is aimed at helping communities better manage their solid waste, and named source reduction and recycling as the primary strategies for attaining this goal.
In addition, $300,000 in funding will go to programs that promote public education and awareness and which are sponsored by the Clean Communities Council, an advisory group made up of members of the New Jersey Food Council and local Clean Communities coordinators.
Thrown into the pot will be an unspecified amount of funds for state park maintenance.
The new version of the act eliminates a five-year sunset provision that existed in the previous bill and which led to the program lapsing in 2000.
The measure, A-2069 in the Assembly and S-1373 in the Senate, had broad bipartisan support.
Local and county governments will receive a statutory minimum of $4,000 in funding by the summer.
Municipalities are funded directly through state grants based on housing and road miles, and grants to counties are based on road mileage. In the past, all 21 counties and 553 of the state’s 566 municipalities received annual grants under the program, which was established in 1990.
Funding for the Clean Communities initiative comes from a tax attached to sources of litter and collected at point of sale from manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers.
The bill defines 15 litter-generating categories, including alcoholic beverages, soda, cigarettes, paper products, food and groceries.
Manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors will pay $300 per $1 million in annual sales, or a .0003 percent tax. Retailers, including restaurants, will be taxed at a rate of $225 per $1 million of annual sales, or .000225 percent.
The new measure raises the cutoff for retailers, exempting those with annual sales of less $500,000, whereas the old measure set that limit at $250,000.
In Monmouth County, Clean Ocean Action Executive Director Cindy Zipf applauded the reinstatement of the funding but said she was disappointed the measure doesn’t include a requirement for reporting on polluters.
The environmental group lobbied hard to have this point included, she said, but was thwarted by industry groups.
"It’s good news that the program is back on track," she said.
She said Clean Ocean Action expects that when the state does adopt the rules for dispersing the funds, it will include requirements for reporting enforcement of litter laws. She said the litter laws were left out of the new act due to opposition from the New Jersey Food Council (NJFC) and the Clean Communities Council.
"They fought it tooth and nail," she said, adding that the groups cited concerns that funding would be siphoned off for enforcement.
Zipf said Clean Ocean Action will lobby DEP Commissioner Brad Campbell to make reporting enforcement actions part of the program.
"It’s a good program. It’s just unfortunate they didn’t support the effort to get at the source of the problem which is litterers," she added.
"We led the coalition to reinstate this bill. It’s good-sense legislation because it does a good job of collecting funds from the statewide business community," said Michael Drulis, director of government affairs for the Trenton-based NJFC.
"Each pays a small share," Drulis said of the more than 100 supermarkets and their suppliers who are members of the NJFC, "but because so many pay in, it becomes a substantial fund."
Drulis said municipalities are likely to get the same amount in funding as they were receiving before the program lapsed in 2000 plus additional funds for recycling programs.
"There is no funding mechanism in New Jersey for recycling," Drulis said. "So recycling has become a municipal issue. This pumps needed money into a financially defaulted system. The next step is for the environmental community to find a steady funding mechanism for recycling in New Jersey and then the law will dissolve the recycling provision."
William Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, said the reinstatement of the Clean Communities program will benefit taxpayers.
"This is a major policy initiative that not only benefits the government, but also signifies a commitment to property tax relief by helping municipalities pay for necessary recycling and litter abatement programs," Dressel said.