GA VOTED "YES" ON 1!

With 81.6% of the vote, Georgians send a clear mandate

Learn About amendment #1

See how the amendment will read on election day and what it means

know the facts

Before you vote, learn how fees that should fund community cleanups are regularly raided.

How YOU Can Help

Do you believe that we should get the cleanups we paid for? Help us spread the word!

Learn about Amendment #1

Amendment #1 reads:

“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize the General Assembly to dedicate revenues derived from fees or taxes to the public purpose for which such fees or taxes were intended?”

Get the cleanups you paid for

Under the Georgia Constitution, legislators can adopt laws creating fees to fund state programs, but they can’t ensure that those collections will be used for their intended purposes. Instead, the collections go into the state’s general fund and it’s left to budget writers to appropriate the money. Legislators can’t “dedicate” the fees.

These collected fees are intended to fund a number of community programs including hazardous site clean-ups and illegal tire dump clean-ups.

Click Here for a great overview.

know the facts

Georgia’s citizens have been paying into the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund and Solid Waste Trust Fund (HWTF/SWTF) for decades ($1 fee for every new tire purchased and $0.75 tipping fee at local landfills)

The HWTF is intended to pay for cleaning up hazardous waste sites and helping remediate old, unlined landfills that threaten drinking water and the environment.

The SWTF is meant to address landfill emergencies that endanger public health or safety, abandoned landfills, clean up illegal scrap tire piles and dumps, fund recycling and waste-reduction programs, eliminate open dumps, and assist with other solid waste management programs.

Since HWTF and SWTF were created in the early 90s, more than 40% of the collected funds have been diverted to pay for other portions of the budget to the tune of over $200 million.

  • 2008-2018 the HWTF totaled $157 million. $103 million was redirected to the state’s general fund leaving only $55 million to be used for hazardous site clean-ups.
  • 2008-2018 the SWTF totaled $72 million. $50 million was redirected to the state’s general fund leaving only $22 million to fund public clean-ups.

     

Without funding from these fees, local governments often must raise taxes to fund programs designed to keep their citizens healthy and safe. The diversions of fees means that tire dumps and hazardous waste sites are untouched and become detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of citizens.

how you can help

vote "YES" on 1!

Ensure the fees collected by HWTF and SWTF go specifically to clean up hazardous waste, scrap tire piles, and other important programs that help our environment.

spread the word

Click here for posts YOU can share! Inform your friends and family about the misappropriation of tax payers' funds and encourage them to Vote "YES" on 1!

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