The proposals from the county utilities department are part of a multi-pronged approach to both defer and help finance an expensive but inevitable alternative — expanding the county's trash-burning plant in Shady Hills. Adding to the plant, now operating near or at capacity, is projected to cost $190 million and county officials hope to delay the project until 2030.

"This thing causes me much stress,'' said Flip Mellinger, assistant county administrator for utilities. "A $190 million expansion, we don't have money to pay for it. How are we going to solve that? This is a challenge.''

The department's plan, presented to commissioners at a Nov. 15 workshop, calls for increasing the annual $62 solid waste assessment by $2 per household. The increase would be put set aside to help finance the expansion. Currently, owners of nearly 200,000 parcels in the county pay the annual assessment.