Administration Fees

Minnesota
SF 3639 (2002) was introduced by Senator Ellen Anderson to require the Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety to conduct a feasibility study on how to implement a passenger vehicle registration tax that uses fuel efficiency as a factor in determining the tax. The legislation is a timely response to the ever-increasing proportion of gas-guzzling, inefficient sports utility vehicles on the state’s highways. The scope includes recommendations on vehicle efficiency ratings and eligibility for tax reductions, estimates on the number of vehicles that would qualify for tax reductions, and estimates of how much revenue the highway user tax distribution fund would lose under this tax system.

Texas
HB 1366 (2003), which was signed into law, requires each owner of an operating dry cleaning facility or dry cleaning drop station to pay a registration fee between $250 and $2,500. The new law also imposes a fee of $15 per gallon on the purchase of the dry cleaning solvent perchloroethylene (PERC) and $5 per gallon on the purchase of any other dry cleaning solvent by an owner of a dry cleaning facility. The person who distributes the solvent should pay the fee to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Virginia
SB 592 (2002) increases permit fees to cover more than 20 percent of the direct costs of the hazardous and solid waste programs. The bill also triples the statutory caps on water permit fees. The legislation was written after a Virginia Department of Environmental Quality report revealed that federal and state taxpayers subsidize 94.8 percent of the costs to run these water and air permit programs in the state.

Disposal / Recycling Fees

California
AB 712 (2001), the Mercury Pollution Prevention Act, requires every retail purchaser of a fluorescent lamp from a retail seller to pay a recycling fee. This Act transfers the fees to local governments to assist in the collection and processing of fluorescent lamps, and to establish recycling incentive grant programs to provide incentives for the collection and processing of such lamps.

SB 204 (2003) requires a person that manufacturers personal care products to pay the California Integrated Waste Management Board a diversion and recycling fee of $ 0.0025 per personal care product manufactured by that person and sold or distributed in the state. The bill also establishes the Personal Care Product Recycling Account in the Integrated Waste Management Fund and would require the board to deposit those fees in the account. The bill would continuously appropriate the funds in the account to the Board for expenditure by the Board to provide to eligible local agencies and waste haulers grants for the recycling and diversion from landfill disposal of personal care products.

Florida
SB 674 (2003) imposes on any person engaging in the business of making retail sales of electronic products an advance recycling fee to be collected by marketers and a waste disposal surcharge to be collected by counties to fund recycling and disposal programs. This bill requires counties to establish programs for properly recycling or otherwise disposing of televisions, computer monitors, and other electronic equipment and components of such equipment. The bill also requires marketers of such equipment to be responsible for accepting and handling such equipment when it is returned for disposal by its purchasers.

New Jersey
AB 2069 (2002), the Clean Communities and Recycling Grant Act, was signed into law that imposes a Litter Control Fee on manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers on their sales of litter-generating products within or into New Jersey. This Act revises the Clean Communities Program, and creates the Clean Communities Program Fund to make grants available to municipalities for litter pickup and removal and recycling programs. The Litter Control Fee is essentially identical to the Litter Control Tax which was imposed in New Jersey from 1986 through 2000 under N.J.S.A. 13:1E-99.1. The new Litter Control Fee applies retroactively to the year beginning January 1, 2002. Thus, the 2002 return will include the gross receipts of all sales of litter-generating products back to that date. The return and fee payment are due on or before March 15, 2003. Litter Control Fee returns and instructions are being sent to all businesses that were eligible for the Litter Control Tax.

New York
AB 3463 (2002), the Waste Tire Management and Recycling Act, imposes a tire recycling fee of one dollar and twenty-five cents on each new tire sold. The fee is paid by the purchaser to the tire service, which collects the fee at the time of the sale and remits such fee to the Department of Taxation and Finance. All recycling fees collected by the Department of Taxation and Finance are transferred to the Waste Tire Management and Recycling Fund.

Rhode Island
HB 6196 (2003) adds mercury-containing florescent lamp bulbs to the definition of hard-to-dispose materials and would provide that Resource Recovery establish a phased-in collection system for mercury containing lamp bulbs over a three year period from the passage of this act. Once designated as hard-to-dispose materials, a tax will be levied upon the sale of those materials, which include lubricating oils, antifreeze, organic solvents, new tires, and new motor vehicles.

Beneficiary Fees

Colorado
SB 02-001 (2002) establishes a referendum on a 0.6 percent increase in the Denver Metro Area Transit Tax. Revenues from the tax would be used to fund the Regional Transportation District’s “FasTrack” Plan, the main feature of which is a 105-mile light-rail system. Under Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, taxes cannot be raised without voter approval.

Safer Alternative Investment Fees

Massachusetts
SB 1195 (2003) lifts the sales tax exemption for pesticides and devotes the revenue to promoting integrated pest management. Under the Massachusetts Statutes, sales of fertilizer including insecticides and fungicides are exempt from the tax on retail sales. (MA Stat. Ch. 64H Sec. 6(p)(3))