Municipalities contracting with waste haulers who dump trash at the Portage County Transfer Facility face steeper costs next year after the county's solid waste board voted Monday to increase tipping fees by $3.75 a ton.

The increase comes on top of a $7.10 increase to the state tipping fees, which took effect Oct. 1, bringing the total taxes charged by Wisconsin to dump a ton of garbage to $13.10. When the $3.75 increase takes effect Jan. 1, haulers will pay $48.95 to dump a ton of garbage at the county's facility

The fee increase will be used to help plug a $357,000 hole in the department's 2010 budget. With the drop in prices for recyclables, Solid Waste Administrator Scott Schedler said higher tipping fees are the only way the department currently has of raising money.

Board member Mike Wiza said the committee looked at a number of different options for the increase before settling on $3.75.

"To break even, we would need $61.23 a ton, as opposed to the $45.20 that most people are paying now. That would be too significant an impact, so while we already have reduced spending, we decided to increase the fee a little bit, and review it again April 1."

Wiza said it's unlikely the board would consider raising the tipping fee again at that time, as it would be unfair to the municipalties that contract with the county, but would instead look at other ways to cut costs and raise revenues. The increase in tipping fees is expected to raise about $200,000, he said.

Patrick Wanserski, board chairman for the town of Sharon, which contracts for waste hauling with the county, said the increase could wreak some havoc with the town's 2010 budget. While it prepared for what it suspected would be an increase in state tipping fees last year, the county increase is a new cost, he said.

The department's 2010 budget problems pale in comparison to the roughly $1 million deficit it faces this year, most of it because of low prices for recyclables and a decrease in business at the transfer facility.

"It was a culmination of everything that happened over the last year. People just aren't remodeling, aren't building as many things, and a lot of that waste wasn't coming here this year," Schedler said.

To help plug that budget hole, the board recently voted to use its remaining reserves, about $750,000, Wiza said. The department will have to ask the County Board for the rest of the money, he said. He added that the board is going to have to take a serious look at ways to make the department more sustainable in the coming months.

"We need to look at solutions; obviously, this can't keep going on," he said.