A 4-percent increase in the charge for using the regional landfill comes as no surprise to the governing bodies of local Southeastern Public Services Authority members, all of which in one way or another have covered the extra costs within next year’s budget.

The SPSA Board of Directors voted 13-1 Wednesday to increase municipal tipping fees by $4, to $104 per ton, beginning July 1.

The increase had been recommended some time ago, giving local governments the opportunity to account for it within their fiscal year 2009 spending plans.

The City of Franklin and Southampton County both address the extra cost explicitly within the commentary that accompanies their budgets.

To help cover the increased cost of depositing residents’ trash at the regional landfill in Suffolk, the Franklin City Council agreed to raise residential and commercial disposal rates by $1 a month, starting next month.

City Manager Bucky Taylor told the

council during budget deliberations that the higher rates for weekly trash pickup would help bring the city’s waste collection and disposal closer to breaking even.

Southampton County’s budget also reflects the expected increase in tipping fees and curbside recycling charges, but the spending plan actually shows a drop in the refuse disposal category cost, largely because of the success of the county’s new attended waste collection sites in reducing the amount of waste that must be taken to the dump.

In fact, 2009 waste volume is expected to be down 44 percent from 2006 levels, according to County Administrator Michael Johnson.

With a majority of its members adopting the so-called &uot;flow control&uot; regulations that would require area commercial waste haulers to take their trash to the landfill in Suffolk, SPSA is expected to be able to reduce its municipal tipping fee to $80 per ton in February.

That expected reduction is one of the reasons Isle of Wight’s Board of Supervisors did not expressly address next week’s 4-percent increase in its 2009 spending plan, according to Carrsville District Supervisor Phillip Bradshaw.

The net effect of both changes, he pointed out, would be that Isle of Wight would pay less than the $2 million it has budgeted for waste disposal.