County leaders from throughout Pennsylvania this week unveiled their list of 2007 key legislative priorities, including county recycling fees, land use and transportation funding issues.

Percy Dougherty, Lehigh County Commissioner and president of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said “these 2007 priorities are as diverse as Pennsylvania’s counties themselves. I think they very appropriately call attention to the wide variety of issues with which counties must deal every day. Often times, our citizens and state lawmakers are not aware of the breadth of services counties provide.”

While property tax relief and funding for human services topped the group’s list of priorities, they included these environmental issues—

County Recycling Fee Authoriation: Due to a court decision, counties can no longer levy a local administrative fee to fund supplemental county recycling programs such as household hazardous waste collection, electronics recycling, recycling drop-off centers, illegal dump enforcement and cleanup, and tire recycling.

This ruling has left counties without a source of revenue to fund these programs and, beginning in 2007; many supplemental local recycling programs will be cut or eliminated.

A decrease in the availability of recycling programs will result in more recyclable goods filling up space in landfills, and a proliferation of illegal dumping on public and private lands. This will have an adverse impact on the Commonwealth’s environment and the quality of life of many Pennsylvania residents, and will undermine the public’s investment in the Growing Greener bond initiative. Counties are seeking an alternative funding stream for these recycling programs.

Conservation and Land Use: Counties have a role in land use planning, farmland and open space preservation, water quality and other environmental issues. The Association supports programs to promote use of alternatives to fossil-based transportation fuels, including incentives for counties to deploy hybrid vehicles and vehicles operated by alternative fuels.

Counties seek increased funding for farmland and open space preservation, as well as authority to levy a realty transfer tax of up to one percent to generate revenue for farmland and open space preservation. CCAP also seeks funding for water quality initiatives such as the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy, including development and implementation of stormwater management plans.

Bridges and Mass Transit: Counties are responsible for the maintenance of more than 4,000 county-owned bridges, funded with a gas tax allocation that has remained largely unchanged since 1930. With a lack of infrastructure funding, many of these bridges are structurally deficient and many others are approaching the end of their useful life.

Mass transit funding issues are also significant to counties, as there are more than 30 mass transit systems covering more than two-thirds of the counties in Pennsylvania. The Report’s recommendation on county and municipal bridge and highway funding lacks clarity and, depending upon the potential distribution, the funding recommendation is likely to be significantly less than is needed.

The Association supports prompt legislative action on the Report, and insists that county bridge funding needs be included in these legislative deliberations. Counties support a half-cent increase in the state’s liquid fuels tax, or an equivalent amount from another transportation funding source, that would be allocated to counties based on each county’s relative bridge responsibility.

For more information, visit the CCAP Legislative Priorities webpage.

1/19/2007