Urge your Georgia Legislator to vote NO on SB 427 – Don’t allow Georgia's polluters to pay to play

Senate Bill 427 is scheduled for a House floor vote Tuesday, March 27. Your action is needed TODAY!

SB 427 is a bad bill because it allows the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) Director to charge an undetermined fee for preferential treatment to review applications for environmental permits. In other words, those who can pay to play will get expedited review and permits issued.

Even more troubling, some in the General Assembly may be planning to use SB 427 as a vehicle to revive bills the Georgia Water Coalition defeated years ago, which would have created a rubber stamp process in administrative law courts that unfairly favors government bureaucrats over average citizens.

Please contact your state representative TODAY and ask him or her to Vote NO on SB 427. Find your state representative here.

Urge your Georgia Legislator to restore HB 811 and vote YES

HB 811, a bill to ensure that fees on tires and more are dedicated for their intended purpose, has passed both chambers of the General Assembly, but was watered down in the Senate. We need to send a message to all state legislators to restore HB 811 to its original language and to pass the bill.

The state imposes fees on certain activities; funds collected through those fees are supposed to pay for cleaning up illegal tire dumps and old hazardous waste sites. More than 50 percent of the funds collected from 2004 to 2012 were rededicated to other unrelated purposes. In 2010, Georgia residents paid $6 million in tire fees, but none of that money was spent on cleaning up illegal tire dumps or abandoned landfills. The original version of the bill provided that if dedicated fees are not appropriated for their intended purposes, then the fees would be reduced proportionate to the amount that is redirected to other purposes.

CALL TO ACTION: Please contact your state representative and senator and ask them to restore HB 811 to its original language and vote YES. Contact them here. Read the bill here. Read the Georgia Public Broadcasting story here, and the Peach Pundit article here.