WHEREAS, the best numbers available, which date from 1995, indicate that in that year Wisconsin residents each generated an average of 1,560 pounds of solid waste, or 4.27 pounds per day, including each person’s share of household and some commercial waste; and

WHEREAS, a record 1.4 million tons of garbage from other states were dumped in Wisconsin landfills in 1999, most of it trucked into the state from Illinois and dumped in landfills in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Kenosha, Racine, Walworth and Rock counties, though an increasing percentage of waste is imported from Minnesota; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature has placed strict bans on the types of in-state waste that is dumped in Wisconsin landfills but has been prevented by the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution from placing similar restrictions on out-of-state waste; and

WHEREAS, the state covers less than 40% of the eligible costs of curbside pickup and other expensive local programs, a percentage that has been shrinking steadily since 1989 when the recycling mandate was established; and

WHEREAS, a $1.85increase in the fee on each ton of solid waste dumped in Wisconsin, recommended in the Department of Natural Resources' 2001-2003 budget request, would neither adequately fund local recycling programs nor discourage the dumping of out-of-state waste in Wisconsin landfills;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the City of ___________________ supports adequate non-property-tax funding for the state recycling mandate, as approved by the Legislature in the 1999-2001 state budget but not signed into law; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED, that the Legislature appropriate at least $37.8 million per year for recycling grants by imposing a modified business surcharge on certain businesses and a landfill dumping fee that differentiates between high-volume industrial waste and other solid waste; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED, that the Legislature exempt the cost of these fees from expenditure limits for municipalities; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED, that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the governor, leaders of both houses of the Legislature, legislators from the _____________ area and members of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on State-Local Partnership for the 21st Century.

Adopted ______________________

(signed)________________________