Article
VIII of Chapter
171 of Part II of the Code of Sullivan County shall be known as the "Sullivan County Solid Waste/Recycling Fee Article."
The Legislature of Sullivan County finds that:
A. The New York State Solid Waste Management Plan (the "Plan") and the
Solid Waste Management Act of 1988 (the "1988 Act") mandates that
the amount of solid waste generated and disposed in New York State
be managed through the establishment of programs to reduce the amount
of waste being produced and disposed by recycling and reusing that
portion of the waste stream that feasibly can be so recovered. The
legislature hereby finds that it is in the public interest, in order
to further the purposes of the state policy on solid waste management
articulated in Section 27-0106 of the Environmental Conservation Law,
to require the source separation and segregation of recyclable or
reusable materials from solid waste. Furthermore, the County's
solid waste and environmental public policy establishes that all materials
that may be reused, recycled, or otherwise removed from the solid
waste stream shall be removed through programs offered by the County.
B. To provide the citizens of the County with effective solid waste
management and recycling services, the County has adopted and amended
its Waste Management Plan and Rules, and has implemented a number
of programs which provide services to all citizens of the County.
Since 1992, the County has provided County-wide solid waste management,
including the mandate of source separation of recyclable materials
from municipal solid waste, recycling and disposal services at the
Sullivan County Landfill and at County-owned and -operated transfer
stations, and the education of our citizens on the mandates of state
and local laws and the benefits of recycling.
C. The County Legislature has determined as a matter of public policy
that the cost of providing County-wide solid waste management and
recycling services should be borne by the owners of all real property
within the County on which solid waste is capable of being generated
and that have access to the county's solid waste management system.
[Amended 12-20-2012 by L.L. No. 6-2012]
D. The County Legislature finds that the County-wide solid waste management
system has sufficient capacity to adequately handle all municipal
solid waste, recycling and disposal services generated within the
County.
E. The County Legislature has determined that substantially all solid
waste is generated on properties capable of generating solid waste
and that have access to the County's solid waste management system.
[Amended 12-20-2012 by L.L. No. 6-2012]
F. The County Legislature has determined that funding the entire cost
of services and facilities by charging a tipping fee at the County's
solid waste facilities and ad valorem taxes has placed a disproportionate
burden on the taxpayers of Sullivan County.
G. The County Legislature has determined that attempting to fund the
entire cost of the County's solid waste services and facilities
by a tipping fee alone would be unworkable and unacceptable.
H. The County Legislature has determined that, in order to remove recyclables
and household hazardous waste from the solid waste stream to the greatest
extent possible, the County should continue to provide recycling and
periodic household hazardous waste services/facilities without requiring
that an on-site tipping fee be charged for such services/facilities
and finds that the cost of such services/facilities be borne by the
solid waste/recycling fee.
I. Therefore, the Legislature finds that the most equitable method of
funding the cost of the County's solid waste, recycling and household
hazardous waste services is to charge, in addition to a reasonable
tipping fee for solid waste, a rationally based solid waste/recycling
fee to the owners of all parcels of real property within the County
on which solid waste is capable of being generated and that have access
to the County's solid waste management system, and to annually
levy said solid waste fee on the County/town tax bill as a real property
lien against said properties.
[Amended 12-20-2012 by L.L. No. 6-2012]
Challenges to any solid waste/recycling fee may be made only
as follows:
A. Any challenge to the data on the assessment rolls used in compiling
the solid waste/recycling fee roll shall be brought before the assessing
authority at the same time and in the same manner as any other challenge
with respect to an assessment of real property. In the event of any
correction or adjustment resulting from such a challenge, the Town
and County shall remediate such error in the same manner as the correction
of an error, if appropriate, with respect to real property taxes.
B. Any challenge to the imposition of the solid waste/recycling fee
on a parcel of real property within the County on which solid waste
and/or recyclables may be generated may only be brought as follows:
(1) The challenge provided for herein shall constitute the sole and exclusive
remedy with respect to any claim that imposition of the solid waste/recycling
fee on any parcel of real property within the County on which solid
waste and/or recyclables may be generated, was improper.
(2) The challenge shall be brought by no later than March 31.
(3) The challenge shall be brought before the County's Solid Waste/Recycling
Fee Appeals Committee whose determination shall be final. Such final
determination shall be subject to a judicial review, provided such
petition to commence such judicial review is filed and served within
120 days, as provided in Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and
Rules, of the date on which the challenger is notified of the determination
of the Committee.
[Amended 12-20-2012 by L.L. No. 6-2012]
(4) In the event the Solid Waste/Recycling Fee Appeals Committee shall
grant a challenge or grievance, the property owner shall be granted
a credit or refund, in the amount determined by said Committee.
If any word, clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of
this article shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction
to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate
the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the
word, clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part thereof involved
in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered
and that rest and remainder of this article shall be given the fullest
extent possible, consistent with law and consistent with the intent
of this article as determined from the content of the entire article.
[Amended 12-20-2012 by L.L. No. 6-2012]
The provisions of this local law shall be effective immediately upon the filing of a copy
with the Secretary of State.