Whenever you buy new tires, each carries an add-on fee of $1 that by law is supposed to be dedicated to landfill cleanup and solid waste management.
Like most, you probably do not like paying a surcharge but don't complain because you figure it goes to a good cause, just like paying add-ons if you have to pay a court-imposed fine.
Well, think again.
Tens of millions of dollars have been diverted into general funds instead of designated areas such as driver education, training for prosecutors and law enforcement officers, indigent defense and landfill cleanup.
And that is what HB 811 moving through the state House of Representatives is intended to change.
"I've signed on to that bill," Rep. Tom Weldon (R-Ringgold) said last Friday. "You sit on the Appropriations Committee and see departmental budget creep; what this bill does is say that a fee collected for a specific purpose is used for what it is supposed to do."
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Jay Powell (R-Camilla), has the support of more than 60 House members who agree that if fees are not spent for their intended purposes the fees should be reduced or eliminated.
"In recent years, budget times have been tough and the General Assembly has had to make ends meet the best it can," Powell is quoted as saying in an AP story. "However, we cannot continue to use these fees for other purposes. We should either appropriate the fees as promised, reduce the fee to what is being appropriated, or get rid of the fee altogether. House Bill 811 strengthens transparency in the budget process and trust in our government."
The Association County Commissioners of Georgia concedes the state might have needed the fees to cover shortfalls over the past decade but strongly supports HB 811.
"It has been introduced in the House but not assigned to committee yet," ACCG spokeswoman Beth Brown said when asked last week about the bill's status at the halfway point of this year's legislative session.
To minimize its impact on the state's budget, HB 811, if adopted, would be phased in over five years.