The Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority has filed for a declaratory judgment on its Mid-Connecticut Project operating budget, responding to an injunction filed last week by member towns claiming budget numbers were inflated.
CRRA spokesman Paul Nonnenmacher said that the board of directors met last week and decided an immediate decision was necessary and in the best interest of the quasi-public agency and all its 70 municipal members who use its landfill in Hartford.
That landfill will close at the end of this year.
Fee Hike
CRRA’s 2008-09 budget, which goes into effect July 1, increases municipal tipping fees from $69 to $72 per ton. CRRA officials have said the fee increase is necessary due to the approximately $115 million cost of closing the landfill and transporting ash residue to sites out of state.
The ash is a by-product of converting trash to electricity.
Additionally, fees are projected to rise to as much as $90 per ton while the CRRA moves forward on plans for a new ash landfill in Franklin. The best case scenario has that new landfill opening in 2011, provided the site meets state Department of Environmental Protection standards and permits are granted.
CRRA adopted its $110.7 million Mid-Connecticut budget in February.
Towns Cry Foul
Towns have cried foul over the tipping fee increase, and one — Vernon — hired an auditor to review the spending plan.
The auditor determined the budget was unfair, leading to the latest in a series of lawsuits against the CRRA by the 70 towns in the Mid-Connecticut Project objecting to various fee hikes and payments.
The towns currently are at odds with the CRRA over monies lost through a botched $220 million loan with the former Enron Corp.
CRRA recovered approximately $150 million, and is appealing a judge’s decision that the agency has to return $36 million to the towns.
Two weeks ago, the towns filed a new injunction claiming that the 2008-09 Mid-Connecticut budget is “illegal and retaliatory in that it includes millions of dollars in improper, inflated, and unnecessary expenses.”
The injunction seeks to lower the tipping fees from the projected $72 per ton.
David Golub, lead counsel for the 70 towns, said he didn’t understand why CRRA’s motion was filed in Hartford instead of the Waterbury court, where Judge Dennis Eveleigh has been familiar with the towns’ case since 2005.
Eveleigh was the judge who ruled CRRA has to return the $36 million.
“What’s the reason for filing in Hartford when there’s already action filed in Waterbury?” Golub said.
Golub said it would have been more appropriate and just as fast to seek an immediate hearing with Eveleigh instead of going before a Hartford judge unfamiliar with the towns’ ongoing suits against the CRRA.
Golub said the towns also want a quick ruling on the budget, but called the CRRA’s action “cynical” for thinking action in Hartford would be quickest.
Nonnenmacher said in response, “Our offices are in Hartford and it made the most sense to do that here.”
Nonnenmacher also said the CRRA board determined that neither the agency nor the member municipalities could wait for a ruling on the injunction and that officials wanted to know as soon as possible whether their proposed budget was fair.
“It’s in everybody’s best interest to do so,” Nonnenmacher said.
Recently, several towns, including Vernon, East Hartford, and Hartford, have begun researching other options for garbage service once obligations to CRRA are paid off by 2012, and Coventry has indicated it will do the same.
