(Lansing, MI – AP) – Governor Rick Snyder’s proposal to increase trash fees to fund environmental cleanup is dead. The Republican-led Legislature did not act on the legislation this week, meaning it cannot be passed before the lame-duck session concludes. Snyder’s call to raise the landfill dumping fee had hit resistance from both Republicans and Democrats. He and legislative leaders are exploring other ways to replace the Clean Michigan Initiative, a 20-year-old voter-approved bond issue that is drying up.
Snyder had said increasing the fee would have cost households no more than an additional $4 a year and still have been lower than the regional average. His separate proposal to add a state fee to water bills for infrastructure needs is still alive because of a legislative procedural step, but it also is facing opposition.
