Vehicle Fee May Swap for Tire Tax

The Indiana House Environmental Affairs Committee voted to add a $1 fee on most motor vehicle registrations, with the brunt of the money going to combat the growing problem of waste tires in the state.

The bill, authored by Rep. Dave Wolkins, R-Winona Lake, repeals the current 25-cent tax on the sale of new tires and instead tries to collect the money through Bureau of Motor Vehicle registrations.

“We aren’t efficient at collecting the tire tax at the retail level,” said Wolkins, who said that the income from the current tax varies dramatically from year to year.

Using registrations makes it easier to predict how much money will be collected, which is expected to be about $5.5 million a year.

Twenty percent of the money would go to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to help clean up problem tire piles around the state. The rest of the money would be used in multiple ways to promote and assist in waste tire collection, reuse and recycling.

For example, it could be used to make forgivable loans to entities that use waste tires for some beneficial use; it could reimburse solid waste management districts conducting waste tire collection days; and it could provide incentive payments and reimbursements for waste tire processors and other entities using the waste tires for a beneficial purpose.

The bill passed 7-5 amid concern about the additional registration fee. Wolkins said he thinks he will be forced to change the bill when it moves to the House Ways and Means Committee for consideration.

Vince Griffin, of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, testified in support of the bill as a way of dealing with the millions of waste tires discarded in Indiana each year.

“This presents an opportunity for state government to put a fee on a problem to create a solution,” he said. “Under the old way, not all the money makes it through the pipeline. It just disappears along the way.” Fort Wayne Journal Gazette