Editorial: AAA Buries Oregon in Mud

There was bad news for trucking from the Pacific Northwest last week. A coalition of business groups led by the Oregon Trucking Association was forced to concede defeat in its efforts to consign the state’s hated weight-distance tax to oblivion. The monster lives on.

The tax repeal is part of a road funding package that includes a gasoline and diesel fuel taxes and higher truck and car registration fees.

With five weeks to go before the May 16 referendum and unable to build public support for the package, trucking decided to not to throw any more money down a rat hole. The latest opinion polls showed virtually two-thirds of Oregon voters now oppose the referendum.

The coalition has pulled its advertisements from television stations and newspapers and will rely solely on winning the hearts, minds and votes of Oregonians by soliciting stories and editorials in local media, knocking on doors and holding signs in public forums.

OTA President Michael G. Moises pointed the finger of blame at the twin demons of high gasoline prices and negative advertising by the American Automobile Associations. Not surprisingly, Oregonians have no interest in paying a nickel a gallon more to fill their gas tanks in these days of $1.50-plus fuel prices.

Regarding the tax repeal, Oregon trucking’s old nemesis, AAA, did a bang-up job of suborning the legislative process. The Oregon/Idaho chapter not only forced the measure onto an election ballot, after the repeal had been approved by duly elected lawmakers and signed by the governor, it also threw much mud, claiming that getting rid of the weight-distance tax gave truckers a tax break at the expense of motorists.

It didn’t seem to matter than the non-partisan state Legislative Revenue Office issued a study showing the allegations were false. The Oregon Trucking Association has sued AAA in hopes the truth will come out.

This is not the first time AAA has besmirched trucking. The local office played fast and loose with the facts in 1992 when it tried unsuccessfully to ban triples in Oregon. And just a few months ago, the Southern California AAA ran a lengthy article about the productivity issue in their member magazine, headlined “Big Trucks, Big Trouble.”

AAA has a public image of being the good guys that motorists can call when they are stranded. That’s clearly not the case in Oregon. Next time Oregon motorists get a flat tire because of pothole-filled roads, they can thank AAA.