The state legislature hasn’t even convened, but anti-trucking legislation has already been filed in Oklahoma for the 1999 session.
Among other things, the first bill pre-filed in the state senate calls for the first time registration fee for trailers to increase from $40 to $100, and the annual fee to go from $4 to $20. Perhaps most harmful to the trucking industry is a provision of the bill that would eliminate the state's $10 excise tax flat fee on vehicles over 54,000 pounds and replace it with a 3 ¼% tax rate.
The cost to trucking would be enormous, said George Tomek, president of the Oklahoma Trucking Assn. "Let’s put it this way, if you’ve got a 90,000 pound truck, instead of paying a $10 flat tax on it you’d be paying 3 1/4% multiplied by $90,000. So that’s a major league difference."
Mr. Tomek said OTA will be fighting this bill when the legislature convenes in February 1999. "We’re not going to sit back on this thing because we think it’s a serious situation," said Mr. Tomek. "The people in the legislature just aren’t looking at the ramifications of it and they’re being very myopic about it."
