By Adam Pagnucco.
Buried in County Executive Marc Elrich’s recommended FY26 operating budget is a $50 million fee hike. The increase, which would amount to a 31% rise for households and a doubling for multifamily and commercial properties next year, would raise almost as much money as his property tax hike. And that could be just the beginning.
The fee in question is the systems benefit charge, which funds the county’s solid waste and recycling programs. Among them is the Resource Recovery Facility (RRF), the county’s incinerator based in Dickerson. The county owns the RRF and contracts out its operations. During the 2018 campaign, then-county executive candidate Marc Elrich vowed to close the incinerator but soon recanted after his election. Last year, the county extended the RRF’s operations contract while announcing its intention to move towards an alternative, an approach that did not satisfy critics who wanted the county to move faster on closing it. Elrich’s budget contains more details on the county’s plans – and they are expensive.
In his budget message, Elrich wrote:
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In the Recycling and Resource Management Division of DEP [Department of Environmental Protection], my budget funds the County’s final contract extension with the operator of the Resource Recovery Facility (RRF). In the capital budget, I fund the initial design of a Material Recovery and Biological Treatment Facility to divert as much material from the County’s waste stream as possible. The operating budget continues to fund the design and eventual implementation of a completely new waste processing system so that we have a place to send our material once the RRF is shut down. As a result, solid waste charges increase 31.0 percent for single family homes, 104.4 percent for multi-family properties, and 104.9 percent for commercial properties. The major drivers of this increase are from the contract extension of the Resource Recovery Facility and initial design funding for the Material Recovery and Biological Treatment Facility.
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DEP’s recommended budget contains more details on the fee hike. The $50 million increase would result in an annual hike of roughly $100 on the average home. (You can check the effect of a 31% increase on your home here.) But that’s only the start of it.
The capital project for the incinerator’s planned replacement, called the Material Recycling and Biological Treatment Facility (MRBT), lists $36 million in costs from current revenues (cash). That’s where most of the fee increase is going. However, those costs are just for planning, design and supervision. The project language notes, “The funding in this project is an estimate for the pre-construction services phase and are considered placeholders until a design contract is awarded. Construction cost estimates will be added when there is a better understanding of their scale.”
So the design alone would cost homeowners a 31% fee increase and would double fees on commercial and multifamily owners. Given that design is projected to cost $36 million, how much more would construction cost? A hundred million dollars? A few hundred million? No one knows. What about the operating costs? That is also unknown. Where would it be located? Unknown. How would construction be financed? The project language states, “Construction will be funded with revenue bonds.” How would those bonds be financed? More fee increases of course – and depending on the project’s ultimate capital and operating costs, possibly very large ones.
No one loves the incinerator. But this project has more red flags than the Soviet army. It originates with a county executive who promised to close it but did nothing for years. Now he is a lame duck and wants to bequeath a long-term project of unknown nature, location and cost to his successor. Is it really necessary to build such a thing to replace the incinerator or could there be a cheaper option?
Because this project could wind up costing county homeowners hundreds of dollars per year each – permanently – the county council must ask tough questions before even considering Elrich’s gigantic fee hike.