Coventry voters will decide this week whether to create a reserve fund to anticipate the closure of the state’s only landfill.
The town receives a tipping fee for hosting the landfill based on the tonnage of waste brought to the site. The resulting revenue eliminates municipal property taxes for residents — a perk that could cease once the landfill reaches capacity.
Casella Waste Systems, Inc. added 51 acres to the landfill in 2022, extending the operation for around two decades. Once the landfill is closed, the Coventry Select Board wants to avoid reinstating property taxes in full, with help from an official fund.
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“We're trying to figure out how much we need to have aside for there to be a continuation of no municipal tax. That's a big challenge,” said Scott Morley, chair of the Coventry Select Board. “We probably can't get to that 100% threshold.”
Voters have been putting aside revenue from the landfill for over 20 years, totaling $16.3 million as of January. The ballot measure this Town Meeting Day would formally house the savings in a “Long-Term Tax Stabilization Fund.”
“It sets that money aside for only that purpose, so the select board is controlled in how it spends that money,” Morley said. “You can't go do other things with that money because the voters have already described what that money is reserved for.”
The select board believes the fund would reach $60-70 million by the landfill’s close, if approved this year. The ballot measure to keep property taxes to a minimum is likely to do well among Coventry voters, Morley said.
“That waste has generated an enormous amount of money for the town, who then doesn't have to pay taxes,” he said. “So there's not going to be a whole lot of people just saying it out straight, who are going to raise their hand and say, ‘We want to stop that.’”
