Oregon's Meredith Goes National
Mr. Meredith will be vice president of state relations. He fills the position vacated when Daniel F. McCormack became senior vice president and chief of staff at ATA.
The job has added responsibilities, due to ATA’s reorganization of how it deals with its state trucking affiliates.
“We’re bringing all of the state affairs functions under one umbrella organization within ATA, which will include state laws and some of the field offices we have providing assistance to the state trucking associations,” said Paul Stalknecht, senior vice president of federation relations for ATA. “Mike will be assisting me in strengthening the federation consistent with the strong recommendations of the Wren committee.”
The new structure is one of the things that attracted Mr. Meredith to the job.
“ATA is going through a restructuring and a re-analysis of what it stands for,” he said. “Change is always a challenge and I want to be a part of that.”
Mr. Meredith was president of the Oregon Trucking Assns. for 20 years, during which time its budget rose from $96,000 to over $1 million a year and the staff increased from three to 13 people.
It was Mr. Meredith’s intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of state legislatures that made him the perfect man for the job, said Mr. Stalknecht.
“Mike is an outstanding strategist when it comes to legislative issues. He’s a seasoned veteran of the political trenches and he’s probably experienced more tough legislative battles in the last five to 10 years than any state trucking executive in the country and he’s done it very successfully.”
The highlights of Mr. Meredith’s career in Oregon read like a hit list of the hot issues facing the trucking industry.
“One of the major things we did was to stop the ballot measure to eliminate triple trailers,” said Mr. Meredith, referring to a 1993 Oregon referendum. “I can’t take all the credit for that, but I can sure tell you I was involved with that.”
Mr. Meredith was also a key figure in attempts to eliminate the weight-distance tax in Oregon. In his new role with ATA, Mr. Meredith will continue to fight the weight-distance tax, but on a national level.
“I’ll probably do it in a different capacity, but I’ll continue to do whatever I can to move this agenda,” he said. “In Oregon, we’ve never been closer to achieving our goal.”
Weight-distance taxes currently exist in five states: Oregon, New York, Idaho, Kentucky and New Mexico. Truckers have argued for years that these tax systems impose millions of dollars in paperwork costs each year.
A recent survey of members showed that elimination of weight-distance taxes is a significant national issue, so it will definitely be on Mr. Meredith’s agenda, said Mr. Stalknecht. “Mike will be spearheading ATA’s assistance to those states that have weight-distance taxes and our industry’s efforts to get rid of them.”
Mr. Meredith said he’s excited to be joining ATA, especially at this time.
“It’s a great opportunity. I think ATA is in a new growth stage and it’s something I want to be involved in.”
