HOWES CAVE — The tri-county waste authority MOSA will require a smaller amount of garbage in 2009, but officials at the Montgomery-Otsego-Schoharie solid waste management authority fear the authority’s budget will do little to shield counties from the continued loss of waste.

The MOSA board this week adopted an $11.6 million spending plan reflecting a spending increase of about $38,000 over this year’s budget.

In setting budget figures, the board lowered requirements for garbage delivery by 5 percent for each county, compared with this year’s figures, MOSA Executive Director Gil Chichester said.

The tipping fee — a per ton charge collected from haulers — was set at $106 per ton, an increase of $1.50 over the current rate.

Pursuant to the service agreement that outlines MOSA operations as they relate to counties, each county is responsible for ensuring that 95 percent of the estimated amount of garbage produced in their borders is delivered to MOSA facilities.

When that waste doesn’t arrive, counties cover the cost of handling that waste anyway.

The “guaranteed annual tonnage” figure, or GAT, was lowered by 5 percent for 2009. Montgomery County is required to ensure that 43,066 tons is delivered to MOSA, and tonnages for Schoharie and Otsego counties were set at 18,300 tons and 40,917 tons, respectively.

Despite the reduction, officials this week said the counties are facing a major shortage of waste this year, a situation that could cost the counties money in 2009.

“We have seen some significant diversions of waste in 2008 in the counties, and the counties are going to need to address that. Even though the numbers may be somewhat lower, the amount of waste lost is significantly beyond the difference,” Chichester said.

Haulers who pick up garbage in the three counties drop it off at transfer stations that charge less, and these often include the Fulton County landfill and transfer stations elsewhere, officials have said.

Adding to the problem is the fact that all three MOSA counties offer different subsidies in an effort to draw haulers to their waste transfer facilities.

When they drop garbage off at MOSA facilities in Montgomery County, haulers pay $85.50 of the $104.50 per ton tip fee this year. The county makes up the difference.

In Schoharie County, haulers who get a contract pay $70.50 per ton. Haulers pay $90.50 per ton in Otsego County.

MOSA Chairman Ed Wesnofske said haulers are taking advantage of that difference, but said he believes it will be difficult for counties to develop a level playing field. That could require Montgomery County, for example, to boost its subsidy to ensure haulers use the county’s facilities.

“That will only get worse if the subsidies get more out of line. So there’s going to be a challenge to keep the waste in the system,” Wesnofske said.

There is a legal means by which counties could compel haulers to drop off waste to designated facilities. Local flow-control laws can be passed to force haulers to bring waste to MOSA, but counties have been reluctant to enact them.

Wesnofske said officials from MOSA and all three counties expect to learn more about these laws during an Oct. 29 meeting.

Over this past year, officials from MOSA and the three counties started meeting to discuss what will happen when the current MOSA service agreement expires in 2014.

Later this month, officials will hear from James A. Zecca, director of the Madison County Solid Waste and Sanitation Department.

Zecca said that county’s flow control, implemented because of difficulties managing waste, has been in place for about five years and it’s working. Flow-control laws are controversial, and their legality was taken all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ultimately approved them. Despite the apparent soundness of flow-control laws’ legal basis, counties in the MOSA region have been reluctant to employ them. Chichester said MOSA has already resolved to help the counties develop flow-control laws by commissioning the service of attorney Mike Cahill, who successfully defended the laws before the Supreme Court.