In what is likely the largest number of bills addressing scrap
tires to be presented to the legislature since the state's scrap
tire law was passed in 1992, four bills have been introduced
to the Maryland Legislature. Committee hearings were held on
two of the measures, while hearings on the others have not yet
been scheduled. All but one are drawing opposition from the
state's tire dealer organizations. The proposals are:
• A Maryland House of Delegates
bill which would subject those who use scrap tires for "commercial
gain" to fines of up to $25,000 and imprisonment of up
to five years for all violations - major and minor - of state
scrap tire disposal statutes. Others would face smaller but
still substantial penalties.
• A proposed Maryland Senate
bill would allow the state to draw from its Used Tire Cleanup
and Recycling Fund over the next three years for a project to
remove nutrients from publicly owned sewage treatment works.
The allowable amount to be drawn from the fund would be $5 million
in fiscal year 2001, $3 million in FY 2002 and $1 million in
FY 2003.
•ÊA Senate bill would transfer
the Used Tire Cleanup and Recycling Fund to the Maryland Environmental
Service from the Department of the Environment.
• A House bill that would
earmark up to 25 percent of the scrap tire fund for mosquito
control.
In testifying against the sewage
treatment bill, Mike Kress, president of the Maryland Tire Dealers
Association said the proposal would drain the state's scrap
tire fund "to attain a goal that does nothing to further
scrap tire abatement."
Maryland law requires tire sellers
to collect a $1 per tire fee on every new tire sold. In 1999,
the scrap fee generated revenues of about $5 million, Kress
said. The fund had about $11 million in reserve at the end of
1999, he said.
Kress, speaking on behalf of
the state's tire dealers, said the dealers would like to see
the state establish a task force to review and rededicate the
scrap tire fund and devise incentives for scrap tire recycling.
