PARIS — Waste Management is seeking to lower the payments it makes to Paris for operations at Pheasant Run Landfill.

Paris has a contract with Waste Management that provides payments to the town based on the amount of garbage disposed of at Pheasant Run. In past years, the town has received about $230,000 to $260,000 a month, but revenues have declined sharply this year as business at the landfill has declined.

Virgil Gentz, Paris chairman, said the town’s contract with Waste Management guarantees a minimum monthly payment of $150,000.

The town board recently met in closed session to discuss potential litigation with the company. Gentz would only say the town is currently in negotiations with Waste Management about the payments.

For the 2010 budget, the town projected it would receive $2.27 million in revenue from the landfill, a decline of 31 percent from the amount projected for 2009.

Pheasant Run has seen a decline in business this year after an increase in the state tax on landfill disposal fees.

Lynn Morgan, a spokesman for Waste Management, said there is no litigation pending.

“We are in negotiations regarding the status of the financial arrangements that have been made in light of the dramatic reduction in tonnage at the landfill as the result of the state tax increase,” Morgan said. “Waste Management expects that it will be able to work out an arrangement that is satisfactory to everyone.”

Wisconsin imposed higher fees on garbage disposal at landfills in the 2010 budget, raising fees from $5.90 a ton to $13 a ton. The higher fee went into full effect in October.

A month later, Morgan said business at the landfill dropped from an average of 3,500 tons of garbage a day to 700 to 1,000 tons a day.

Paris has used landfill revenue to fund all government expenses for the town, as well as each year paying residents’ county property taxes. Projected expenses for 2010 are $2.2 million.