HARRISBURG --A bill to hike state trash disposal fees is turning into a bill of funding dreams for many organizations and causes.

The House is considering legislation to hike the tipping fee on some 23 million tons of trash dumped annually at Pennsylvania landfills from $2-a-ton to $6-a-ton. The higher fees would generate an estimated $135 million in new revenues annually that would be split among a half-dozen different programs.

These include Growing Greener environmental initiatives, downtown renewal including the Main Street program, the state Game Commission, state Fish and Boat commission, Wild Resource Conservation Fund as well as volunteer fire companies.

If enacted, this legislation would mark the third major community/conservation funding initiative in Pennsylvania during the past decade. The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has funded park and recreation improvements since 1993 with a share of revenues from the realty transfer tax dedicated to the Keystone Fund. Growing Greener was launched in 1999 as a five-year umbrella program to fund everything from watershed protection to mineland reclamation to open space land projects with general tax revenues. Gov. Mark Schweiker has proposed cuts in the Keystone Fund and Growing Greener in order to help erase $1.2 billion in red ink.

Advocates such as PennFuture, a non-profit environmental advocacy group, say some of the additional revenues will go to programs that were left out of the earlier funding initatives.

By bringing in $135 million in new revenues, lawmakers won't have to go along with the proposed budget cuts to Growing Greener and the Keystone Fund, says PennFuture official Jan Jarrett.

"Legislators should also make sure the $50 million that Schweiker wants to cut (from Growing Greener) is in the budget," she adds.

But critics says the hikes in tipping fees will be passed on to owners of residences and businesses in the form of higher monthly garbage collection bills.

"The cost of doing business in Pennsylvania is already high enough," says Tom McMonigle, chairman of the Pennsylvania Waste Industries Association.

"Raising taxes on trash is not a painless way to address the budget shortfall and will have long-term, adverse consequences on the Pennsylvania economy." The current bill version exempts incinerators, many of which are municipally owned and located in urban areas, from having to charge the higher tipping fee. Some 2 million tons of trash annually goes to incinerators.

And there are other sticking points as well.

The game commission wants to use its portion of revenues to finance improvements to state gamelands. The commission's funding traditionally comes from the sale of hunting licenses and a portion of federal excise taxes on the sale of sporting arms and ammunition. Rep. Merle Phillips, R-Northumberland, says such an earmark would compromise the commission's status as an independent state agency.

The bill would provide:

   » $80 million in revenues annually for Growing Greener programs.

   » $23 million for a new Community Renewal program to fund anti-sprawl and urban blight grants, Main Street and Elm Street programs and so-called smart growth initiatives. This is a favorite of Hosue Appropriations Chairman David Argall, R-Scuylkill.

   » $5 million to the game commission

   » $5 million to the fish and boat commission for hatchery improvements.

   » $1 million to the financially struggling Wild Resource Conservation Program. which funds projects to study and protect plant and animal species.

   » Up to $25 million to help volunteer fire companies purchase equipment.