Fund dedications up for vote
Scrap tire fees and other charges would go to the purpose for which they are collected.
Floyd County once had an environmental compliance office that hunted out scrap tire dumps, removing more than 100 tons each year and often finding — and fining — the culprits.
Complaints about junk cars, abandoned swimming pools, open cisterns and other hazards of rural life also were handled through the program. But that ended in 2005, after the state eliminated an annual $ 50,000 grant funded through the Solid Waste Trust Fund.
Fifteen years later, the $1 scrap tire management fee that fed the fund is still being charged on the sale of every new tire. However, the money goes into the state treasury and it is up to lawmakers to decide how it will be used.
Georgia voters will have a chance to change that in November, through a ballot measure that would set in stone how certain taxpayer dollars can be used.
“It took several years to get it on the ballot, but I think it’s going to pass overwhelmingly,” said Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, RRome. “If people vote for a fee to be used for a certain purpose, then that’s what we need to do.”
The amendment proposal, sponsored by the late Rep. Jay Powell, R- Camilla, would automatically require dedicated funds to be used for specific purposes without need for the General Assembly to pass additional legislation defining that purpose, as has been the practice in recent years.
State lawmakers aired their thoughts on the proposal in a meeting Wednesday, Sept. 9, of the Georgia Senate Interstate Cooperation Committee.
Hufstetler, who sponsored the legislation in the Senate, made a brief presentation and answered some questions.
Several local government leaders and environment advocates — including Jesse DemonbreunChapman of the Coosa River Basin Initiative — also spoke. They took turns highlighting how dollars have been pulled from efforts to clean up blight and instead put toward broader uses as Georgia struggled to rebound from the economic recession more than a decade ago.
CRBI has been in the forefront of the fight for several years. Members joined the Georgia Water Coalition in 2017 to build “Scrapitol,” a scrap tire replica of the state capitol, during a rally to bring attention to the issue. In 2018 they sponsored a tire- roll marathon around the capitol and collected resolutions from the Rome City Commission and other local governments in support of the measure.
Roughly 40% of the $366 million raised for the dedicated
fund since its creation in 1990 has not actually gone into the fund, said Fairburn City Councilwoman Hattie Portis- Jones.
“What we’d like to see is every dollar collected be used for its intended purpose,” PortisJones said at the meeting.
There would still be some caveats for spending funds if the amendment passes. Dedicated funds could not exceed 1% of
total state revenues from the previous year. And in a financial emergency, the governor and legislature would have the authority to temporarily suspend the dedication of funds.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed the trust- fund ballot measure after the lawmakers passed it in March. It requires final voter approval in the Nov. 3 general election before taking effect.