Repeal of Oregon Weight-Distance Tax Leads State News

It took 47 years of fighting, but trucking hopes 1999 will be remembered as the year Oregon’s weight-distance tax was finally put to rest.

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Industry lobbyists persuaded state legislators to get rid of the nation’s first and most expensive trucking tax in July, and Gov. John A. Kitzhaber signed on in September. Trucking had long argued that weight-distance taxes are easily evaded and needlessly expensive for carriers because of the paperwork required to pay the fees.

The win did not come cheap, though. Trucking hopes the tax system, which charges truckers using a complex calculation based on miles traveled and weight, will be replaced in July 2000 with a 29-cent diesel fuel tax and up to elevenfold increases in truck registration fees.

The repeal isn’t certain; the Oregon-Idaho chapter of the American Automobile Association gathered enough signatures on petitions to put the transportation spending plan — which includes the weight-distance tax repeal and a 5-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase — to a public vote on the presidential primary ballot in May.

For the full story, see the Jan. 10 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.