To the Editor,
This is a comment on an article appearing in the August 23, 2018 Star Herald, “City Budget Hearing Aug. 28.”
This article states that “Sewer and solid waste (garbage) flat rate usage fees will increase from $8 to $9 and $18 to $19 per month respectively. From what I understand, the City of Kosciusko contracts out garbage pickup to the business Waste Management. A portion of this monthly fee is then used by the City to fund the pick up of rubbish and yard debris, not suitable for garbabe bins. According to Kosciusko’s Comprehensive Plan (2015-2030) the charge for garbage pickup is characterized as a “fee” and not a “tax.” As to sewer (waste water management), I’m not certain about the current managerial and employment arrangement between the City and Kosciusko Power and Light, but essentially this is a charge levied and collected by and/or for the City. I have called the sewer bill a “charge,” because I’m not certain whether it is characterized as a fee or a tax. The garbage charge is clearly a fee, however.
Why is this important? Whether a fee, a tax, or an uncharacterized charge, the bottomline is that apparently homeowners or householders in Kosciusko will see a mandatory $2.00 rise in their monthly utility bill, which combines garbage and sewer, along with electricity and water. Before those sitting fatly start thinking, “What’s two bucks” and where’s this letter going, and before I get there, let’s first consider the context of a two-dollar per month increase for anything in Kosciusko.
The poverty rate in Kosciusko is a whopping 32.6% and between 2015-2016 median household income actually declined, while incidentally the average income for females stayed lower than that for males. Consider also that Social Security recipients nationwide have seen no significant raise (COLA or cost of living adjustment) for several years running. The largest COLA in six years was for 2018, but it was a meager 2% and for significant portions of retirees the increase was totally eroded by a simultaneous increase in their charges for Medicare. Whatever the individual case, $1400/month is the average Social Security income nationwide, i.e. just above poverty level. In the ongoing competition with neighboring states to see who can come in dead last for everything though, MS’s average, and certainly Kosciusko's, falls below the $1400/month average. Mississippi is ranked 3rd in being among those states who are most below the national average, with thanks to neighboring Louisiana for being number one in belowness.
Returning now to our two buck increase for garbage and sewer, the former a fee charged by Waste Management and the latter a “charge” the City collects. Unless a change has occurred (doubtful?) and I didn’t catch the news in the Star Herald or didn’t listen to “Minute with the Mayor,” which is always much longer and alas has no fast forward button, the Waste Management contract comes with a particular perk to the City, and while I’m not certain, perhaps a perk to the County as well. What is that perk?
It is in part a very holy and religious perk. In winning the garbage pickup contract, Waste Management agreed or perhaps offered as a bargaining chip against competitors (if there were any of significance), that garbage pick up would be free for all churches, and I seem to recall, would be free for all governmental entities as well. If nothing is changed in the current contract then, not a single church in Kosciusko, and possibly the entire county pays for garbage pickup. The bottomline is that while all households, including those in poverty status or nearly so, pay garbage pickup fees and will see an increase in that fee, churches will continue to unload all their sacrosanct garbage for free. The present fee and the increase in the fee to all householders, regardless of whether they are religiously affiliated or not, thus serves to subsidize free garbage pickup for all churches or religious entities.
I’ve stressed that garbage pickup is a fee in Kosciusko, not a tax, because churches, as non-profits, are exempt from property taxes and other taxes. In some municipalities, garbage pickup is characterized as a tax, sometimes even appended to property taxes, and sewer and water charges are considered taxes as well, making churches thoroughly exempt from any of these charges. At least for garbage collection though, in Kosciusko this is a fee. City/County officials in their contract with Waste Management, which permits churches to be free of this fee, are thus blurring the tax exempt status of churches and simultaneously forcing households to subsidize that blurring. Whether churches pay a sewage or water charge, which is or isn't a tax, I do not know, but that may be another issue if they do not.
In 2017 one city in Maryland did an internal review of local entities on their list getting free garbage pickup. It turned out that many questionable non-profit groups had over the years managed to sashay onto the free garbage pickup list, including ones such as the Cathedral of Fresh Fire and Faith Harvest Church, the Ministry of Caring, and the Drama and Police Athletic Leagues. One wonders who is on the local list here? The county has over 100+ recognized churches, but small ones sprout up fairly regularly in scattered locations or buildings. Also, from my anecdotal observation, the church nearest to me generates far more trash in one week than I do over the span of two months as an indivdual household!
The Chicago Tribune (Sept. 8, 2015), published a letter similar to mine, and the writer was quite forthright in expressing what I’m saying: “Charging Chicago homeowners and at the same time exempting churches is an insult to homeowners and amounts to yet another form of subsidizing religion; churches pay no property taxes for the many municipal services they receive, which means these services are being underwritten by the rest of us, whether we like it or not. It isn’t unreasonable to ask them to pay to remove the garbage they create, as well as the water they use.”
The same goes for Kosciusko, even if it is in the Bible Belt. Another issue is that after a bit of fairly superficial investigation a few years back, Kosciusko decided it could not afford any type of city recycling operation. If churches were charged for garbage collection (and any other municipal service fees which they might illegitmately not be paying), that revenue could possibly be tagged for some form of city recycling effort, or if not the revenue could be used to offset escalations of fees to householders in poverty.
Beverly Johnson
Kosciusko, MS
