Published: October 05, 2009 06:29 pm      

Lax enforcement — 10/06/09

$1 fee on the sale of new tires not generating enough money

The number of illegal tire dumps in Kentucky is increasing rapidly, local solid waste management officials say, and without more money for the Kentucky Waste Tire Fund established to clean up the dumps and assure the safe disposal of old tires, the problem is likely to get much worse.

The Waste Tire Fund collects a $1 fee for each new tire sold in the state, but the law establishing the fee has proved difficult to enforce. The state Revenue Department is charged with collecting the fee, but it’s hard to know who sells tires because there aren’t regulations, such as a license, said Matt Warfield, the department’s miscellaneous tax branch manager.

Tim Hubbard, assistant director of the Kentucky waste management division, estimates that the fee is collected on only about 85 percent of the new tires sold in the state, but Bryan Miles, solid waste coordinator for Grant County and a former vice chair of the Waste Coordinators of Kentucky, said he believes the figure is closer to 60 percent.

In addition to the poor collection rate, $1 million of the $2.6 million a year generated for operation of the Tire Waste Fund was diverted this year to pay Division of Waste Management salaries. That diversion angers Mary Frances Dickey, president of the state waste coordinators group.

“People have the impression that (all) the money is going to reduce a public health hazard, and it’s not,” she said. “I have a problem with that.”

She should have a problem with it. Unfortunately, it is not the first time fees collected for one purpose have been used for another. For example, fees collected from companies to assure the safe management of underground storage tanks have been used for other purposes to help balance the budget.

That’s what happened with the tire fund this year. “We’ve been working hard to juggle the competing interests,” said Chris Fitzpatrick, who oversees the division’s recycling and local assistance branch.

Illegal tire dumps are an environmental disaster waiting to happen. The discarded tires fill up with rainwater and create breeding pools for mosquitoes, exposing residents to diseases, said Pete Flood, an inspector with Louisville’s Department of Solid Waste.

The General Assembly could increase the revenue for the Waste Tire Fund by increasing the fee on the sale of new tires. However, the fairer way is to develop a more effective way to collect the $1 fees and, just as importantly, to use the money — all of it —for the purpose in which it is intended.

The worst thing state officials can do is nothing. The problem caused by improperly disposing of tires is not going to go away by ignoring it. It is only going to get worse — and more expensive to solve.