68-203-104 - Fee schedules. - Tennessee Statutes

68-203-104. Fee schedules.

(a)  (1)  Notwithstanding any other provision of the law to the contrary, the commissioner of finance and administration shall certify to the commissioner of environment and conservation the amount of fees required by each program for the subsequent fiscal year based on the general appropriations act for that year. Upon receipt of such certification, all such fee schedules shall be reviewed by the promulgating authority.

     (2)  All fees and procedures for collecting fees shall be adopted pursuant to rulemaking procedures set forth in the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5. In adopting such rules, the promulgating authority shall consider detailed information regarding salary and staffing improvements and other costs to be funded by the proposed fee schedule or fee increases, as well as the current and proposed average response time to permit applications under that program.

     (3)  After July 1, 2012, authorities responsible for setting fees shall not increase fees in any year general state revenues appropriated to the program have decreased from the previous year.

     (4)  Pursuant to recommendations of the promulgating authority, and within sixty (60) days after receiving the commissioner of finance and administration's certification of the amount of fees required by each program, the commissioner of environment and conservation shall submit to the commissioner of finance and administration an official estimate of fees to be collected by each program for the fiscal year. To the extent the estimate of fees for an individual program is less than the certified amount, the appropriation of fees for the program shall be reduced in the amount of the deficiency and the commissioner of finance and administration is directed to reduce the budget of the program accordingly.

     (5)  It is the intention of the general assembly, for the purposes of this chapter, that any fees promulgated by rules and regulations authorized under this chapter be effective July 1, 1991.

(b)  In the third and all subsequent years, the fee schedule promulgated by each of the authorities listed in § 68-203-103(b) shall not, when added to their individual program fund balance from prior years, exceed one hundred fifty percent (150%) of the fees collected in the previous year by that authority.

(c)  The total of fees assessed and to be paid by any single permittee under each of the statutes listed under § 68-203-101(b) shall not exceed five percent (5%) of the total of all fees assessed under each of the statutes listed.

(d)  For each division of the department that administers one (1) or more of the statutes listed in § 68-203-101(b), no promulgating authority shall establish a fee schedule that results in a ratio between state appropriations and environmental protection fees, exclusive of penalties and damages, in which the environmental protection fees constitute a higher percentage of the total funds expended by the division than the following ratios, which represents an approximation of the time spent by the divisions in activity that protects the public and the environment generally to that spent addressing a particular entity such as in technical assistance, permitting, inspection or enforcement:

     (1)  For the divisions of air pollution control, radiological health, solid waste management and water supply: the percentage of environmental protection fees shall not constitute a higher percentage of the total of fees and appropriations than they did in the fiscal year 1994-1995;

     (2)  For the division of ground water protection: environmental protection fees, seventy-one percent (71%); state appropriations, twenty-nine percent (29%); and

     (3)  For the division of water pollution control: environmental protection fees, fifty percent (50%); state appropriations, fifty percent (50%).

[Acts 1991, ch. 417, § 4; T.C.A., § 68-1-1304; Acts 1997, ch. 471, § 1; 2009, ch. 531, §§ 3, 4.]