Dear Supporter, Greetings from our team at earthday365. Thank you so much for making your voice about House Bill 2761 heard these past few weeks. The Government Efficiency Committee reported they received many calls and we are grateful for how quickly our community mobilized to protect local solid waste funding.
However, we now have another urgent fight on our hands. The bill has now moved to the Senate (now Senate Bill 1586), who will discuss it this Thursday 2/19 from 8-10 am. You may read the updated bill information here. Once again, we ask for your crucial help in submitting testimonies and sharing this information with your peers.
This time, online testimonies must be submitted via directly emailing Committee members by this Thursday. You can find the list of Committee members and their contact information below. Sen. Tracy McCreery – St. Louis County
[email protected] Sen. Jason Bean (Chair) – Southeast Missouri
[email protected] Sen. Jamie Burger (Vice Chair) – Cape Girardeau Region
[email protected] Sen. Mike Bernskoetter – Jefferson City Area
[email protected].gov Sen. Sandy Crawford – Southwest Missouri
[email protected] Sen. Kurtis Gregory – West-Central Missouri
[email protected] Sen. Barbara Anne Washington – Kansas City Area
[email protected].gov Please take a few minutes to make your voice heard!
Why the staff of earthday365 opposes this bill:
- This bill would abolish all state solid waste management districts (SWMDs) and give control of landfill diversion funds to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Hundreds of environmental organizations across the state rely on these funds from SWMDs, which come from local landfill fees (not taxes).
- Passing this bill would lead to millions of tons of additional waste going into landfills, increase public and environmental health risks, and cause setbacks for local economies.
- earthday365 alone diverts over 13 million pounds of waste from the landfill each year with this funding.
- Solid waste management districts are demonstrating their effectiveness by diverting millions of tons of waste from landfills each year without expanding state bureaucracy.
- Landfill fees should be kept local and administered locally. Local organizations and businesses that receive funding from SWMDs are best equipped and knowledgeable to divert waste in their specific areas.
- Solid waste management districts create local jobs across the state, such as those of earthday365’s Recycling On the Go team, and keep local economies alive. Hundreds of Missourian jobs would be lost if this bill passes.
- The bill mentions using the funding for landfill cleanup, which we share concerns about. However, cleaning up landfills will cost much more than what will be raised by these fees, and must be funded federally. We believe making a small dent in this effort is not worth all of the negative impacts to our state listed above.
We urgently ask you to take action and are grateful for your advocacy and support at this time. Sincerely,
The earthday365 Team |
