$1 per new tire fee in California goes into effect Jan. 1

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Nov. 20)—California´s new $1 per new tire fee will go into effect Jan. 1, since state voters in the Nov. 7 election defeated a proposal that would required all new state fees to go back to the legislature for approval. Approval of Proposition 37 would have endangered the new fee, which will be levied on all new tires sold in California and go toward scrap tire cleanup in the state. It quadruples the old 25-cent fee, and both tire and auto dealers will collect it—unlike the old fee, which only tire dealers collected. "Proposition 37 was a cloud over the new tire fee law," said John Serumgard, executive vice president of the Rubber Manufacturers Association, "but that cloud has been dispelled." California Gov. Gray Davis signed the tire fee law Sept. 29.