The state of California may raise its new-tire fee to $1.75 a tire if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs a bill waiting on his desk.
AB 923, passed by both houses of the California legislature, would raise the fee to $1.75 as of Jan. 1. Air pollution prevention programs would receive 75 cents of the fee while the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) would continue to fund state tire programs with $1 from the fee, according to Terry Leveille, a lobbyist for California's state tire dealer associations.
As of Jan. 1, 2007, the fee would be lowered to $1.50, reducing the share given to air pollution prevention programs to 50 cents. The fee will remain at $1.50 until Jan. 1, 2015, when it will again be lowered to 75 cents per tire, Mr. Leveille said.
Tire dealers currently retain 3 percent for tire collection costs, but that amount would be reduced to 1.5 percent if the bill becomes law.
The executive directors of both the California Tire Dealers Association-North and the California Tire Dealers Association-South are urging their members to send letters to the governor's office protesting the bill.
``We strongly believe that increasing the tire fee to resolve air pollution is a tax and a tax that should have been required to receive a two-thirds vote for passage in the state legislature,'' wrote CTDA-North Executive Director Ejnar Fink-Jensen, in a letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger.
``The whole thing is just ridiculous,'' Ed Cohn, CTDA-South Executive Director told Tire Business.