Brief Description: Funding tire recycling.

Sponsors: Representatives Simpson, Chandler, Cooper, Newhouse, Skinner, Romero, Hankins, Hatfield, Mastin, Delvin, Lovick, Campbell, Wood, Sump, Grant, Hudgins, Dunshee, Rockefeller, Moeller and Linville.

Hearing Date: 2/18/03

Staff: Jason Callahan (786-7117).

Background:

A one dollar fee was assessed on the retail sale of each new vehicle replacement tires sold from October 1989, until September 1995. The fee was collected by the tire seller, who was entitled to retain 10 percent of all fees collected (RCW 70.95.510). Revenue generated by the fee was used to fund state and local efforts to remove discarded tires from unauthorized dump sites, to fund local enforcement, to fund local pilot projects for on-site tire shredding, to implement a public education program, to produce marketing studies on tire recycling, and to fund a tire study (RCW 70.95.530 & 535). In 2002, the Legislature enacted a requirement that the Department of Ecology (Department) track and report the annual and cumulative increases and decreases in the state's tire recycling rates (RCW 70.95.545).

Individuals who engage in the business of transporting or storing waste tires are required to be licensed by the Department (RCW 70.95.555). A violation of this licensing requirement is punishable as a gross misdemeanor (RCW 70.95.560).

Summary of Bill:

The one dollar per tire fee on the retail sale of new replacement tires is reinstated and expanded to include used tires. The fee must be collected by the tire seller, who must remit 100 percent of the fee to the Department of Revenue. Of the dollar collected, 25 percent must be distributed to the Motor Vehicle Account and used by the Department of Transportation for road maintenance. The remaining 75 percent is deposited into the Vehicle Tire Recycling Account.

The Vehicle Tire Recycling Account is created within the State Treasury. The Department of Revenue is authorized to deduct 2 percent of the funds collected to administer and collect the tire fee, and the remaining 98 percent is available to the Department. The Department must concentrate the spending of the money in the Vehicle Tire Recycling Account on communities that have the most severe problems with waste tires.

Revenue in the Vehicle Tire Recycling Account must be used by the Department to assist state and local governments with removing illegally piled tires, implementing a public education program, conducting product marketing studies for recycled tires, conducting scrap tire demonstration projects, funding local citizen scrap tire amnesty events, or funding statewide tire carrier tracking, reporting, and enforcement.

Any local government that receives funding from the Vehicle Tire Recycling Account must prepare a report to the Department that details the uses of the funds and what enforcement activities were supported.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Preliminary fiscal note available.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.