Suit Tests Idaho's Weight-Distance Tax
Truckers hope to knock away a few of the pillars supporting Idaho’s weight-distance tax with a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the levy before a state judge in Boise.
IMTA and the ATA Litigation Center filed a lawsuit in 1997 in which they charged that the weight-distance tax — which cuts the tax rate by 50% for vehicles “exclusively engaged” in the transportation of certain timber, agricultural and mineral products — discriminates against interstate carriers and violates the U.S. Constitution’s commerce and equal protection clauses.
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Beginning Nov. 16 in the Fourth Judicial District Court of Idaho, American Trucking Associations and the Idaho Motor Transport Association will argue that the weight-distance tax gives an unfair advantage to certain classes of carriers at the expense of interstate truckers.
The two trucking organizations want to force Idaho to discontinue offering tax breaks to carriers on specific commodities listed in the tax statute. They hope this will unify trucking behind an effort to replace the ton-mile tax with higher vehicle registration fees.
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