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House advances bill to lower hazardous-waste fees, citing competitiveness concerns
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Summary
House committee bill House Bill 13 would reduce treated hazardous-waste fees from $28 per ton to $14 per ton and remove a 3% gross receipts tax to keep Utah facilities competitive; sponsor said the higher fee has reduced inbound waste and revenue and threatens local jobs.
House Bill 13, presented on Jan. 28 as a committee bill from the Hazardous Waste Regulation and Tax Policy Task Force, would reduce the fee for certain treated hazardous waste and drop a 3% gross receipts tax that sponsors said makes Utah facilities noncompetitive.
Representative Eli Anderson, speaking for the task force, said Utah facilities such as Clean Harbors’ Grassy Mountain and aragonite incinerator employ more than 150 people and that the fee increase has led to a notable drop in volume. Anderson told colleagues that the fee at Clean Harbors’ Grassy Mountain facility had been $28 per ton and that comparable facilities in neighboring states charge much lower rates. "Since this fee went into effect... the Grassy Mountain facility has dropped about 10% in the volume that they were receiving," Anderson said, calling the bill a fairness issue to preserve in-state processing and jobs.
Supporters said returning the fee to $14 per ton would help keep waste-processing business in Utah rather than sending it to lower-fee facilities out of state. Representative Anderson said the bill was supported unanimously by the task force and urged colleagues to vote in favor of the committee bill.
After debate and summation, the House opened and closed voting on House Bill 13 and moved the bill forward on the calendar.
The floor remarks included employment and revenue figures cited by the sponsor and examples of differential fees at out-of-state facilities. Those figures were provided on the floor as context for the committee’s recommendation.
