Here we go again, another one of our fine senators wants to remove the sunset of a bill, and then divert funds to another use. Granted, we are only talking a buck a tire, but that is not the principle. It is an entire change to the original bill. This was set up to fund the clean up of illegally disposed of tires around the state. This taxpayer doesn't have a problem with that. There was a set time, and it needed to be done.
Now, Senator Haugen, wants to remove the sunset of this bill, and divert funds that are over a million, every other year, to the motor vehicle fund. This is supposed to be used for road maintenance.
This will be done, under the guise of the intent stated in the first section of the bill:
The legislature restates its goal to fully
6 clean up unauthorized waste tire piles in Washington state in an
7 expeditious fashion. In partnership with local governments and the
8 private sector, the legislature encourages ongoing efforts to prevent
9 the creation of future unauthorized waste tire piles. The legislature
10 notes a positive trend in tire recycling in recent years and encourages
11 all parties to continue these strong recycling efforts.
Just reading this much, it sounds like a good thing... until you get down to Section 3:
Expenditures from the account may be used for
24 the cleanup of unauthorized waste tire piles ((and)), measures that
25 prevent future accumulation of unauthorized waste tire piles, and road
26 wear related maintenance on state and local public highways. During
27 the 2007-2009 fiscal biennium, the legislature may transfer from the
28 waste tire removal account to the motor vehicle fund such amounts as
29 reflect the excess fund balance of the waste tire removal account.
We really need to get the message across to these elected officials that this isn't acceptable to us...
Then, to top it all off, she wants to eliminate the sunset on this, so they can have access to these funds all the time....
This is wrong.....