NHCOG: Federal Funding Yo-Yo, Household Hazardous Waste, State Legislative Update
On February 6th, 2025, the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG) met virtually due to weather conditions.
Executive Director Rob Phillips began his report by discussing a memo that was issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on January 27th. The memo followed President Trump’s Executive Orders in calling for the freezing of all federal funds.
Mr. Phillips followed this by stating while he “did spend the entire afternoon coordinating with COG directors around the state … and thinking about sending out an email to all members about that, things were changing on the fly.”
The memo was rescinded on January 29th. Phillips stated his awareness of OMB’s decision to rescind the memo and that he will keep an eye on this issue as it develops.
Continuing the Executive Director’s Report, Phillips discussed the reason for the delay in invoicing the October Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Event. He said the delay was due to a disagreement over the original arrangement with Clean Harbors. “I found that that invoice was grossly not matching our agreement that we had approved…” he said. “I asked them to sharpen their pencils… and they did, and we saved about … $13,000 ... So that was a substantial miscalculation on their end.”
After the correction, the towns were invoiced for the event. NHCOG has also issued a two-year request for proposals (RFP) to HHW vendors. Phillips said he believed the due date for the RFPs was February 17th.
Immediately following the Report, there was a discussion on request for quotes (RFQ) to upgrade the geographic information system (GIS). GIS systems consist of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data.
Phillips hopes to centralize the data to the regional level. He also remarked that this was for GIS only and that the funds would be “one-time only money through ARPA (The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021) that were unexpended at the state level.”
An issue about the allocation of funds was brought up, noting that some towns may be more up to date on their GIS data and technology than others and may not obtain as much funding. Also, it was not determined if population would be a determining factor in allocating funds. Phillips stated that the funds would be distributed to the towns so that they could pay their vendors but that the amount may be distributed based on individual needs. He also agreed there is more to be ironed out about this topic.
The Legislative Update highlighted a handful of the almost 400 currently proposed bills. One of the bills discussed body cameras for emergency service workers, a bill that, according to the Legislative Update, could present HIPAA violations.
Also discussed was Proposed Bill No. 6653, which proposes “To allow a municipality that utilizes the services of a volunteer firefighter to pay to another municipality a portion of the volunteer firefighter's property tax liability, if the volunteer firefighter resides in a municipality other than the municipality that utilizes the services of the volunteer firefighter.”
Finally, there were remarks on the 20 different bills proposed to cap property taxes, eliminate motor vehicle taxes, and on Proposed Bill No. 6543 which states its purpose as, “To cap property tax increases for senior citizens and individuals with fixed incomes at an amount not to exceed the Social Security benefit per cent increase for the most recent benefit year.”
The next NHCOG Regular Monthly Meeting will be held on Thursday, March 13th, 2025, at 10AM. The meeting will be held in hybrid format.
