Editorial: Idaho Has the Right Idea

Yet another state is coming to its senses and changing its mind about weight-distance taxes. The Idaho Senate voted to replace its $40 million-a-year levy with an increase in truck registration fees. The operator of an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer traveling 100,000 miles a year in the state would see his or her $4,700 ton-mile tax payments replaced with a $3,300 annual registration fee.

The March 28 vote came after a court ruled that Idaho’s uniquely two-tiered weight-distance tax discriminated against interstate trucking. Idaho Circuit Court Judge Michael McLaughlin sided with American Trucking Associations and declared the state’s tax system unconstitutional because of the advantages it gave to some domestic agricultural and mineral haulers.

The state Senate is also working on a proposal to rebate $27 million to truckers who overpaid the tax.

The matter is not closed yet. The Senate needs to move forward on the rebate, and the Idaho House of Representatives needs to approve the repeal and send it to Republican Gov. Dirk Kempthorne for his signature. We trust the lower house and the governor will follow the Senate’s wise action by putting the tax out of trucking’s misery.

The ray of sunshine from Idaho comes as trucking continues its efforts to replace Oregon’s weight-distance tax with a diesel fuel tax and higher truck registration fees. Since the fate of the repeal turns on what voters think about a 5-cent increase in the state tax on gasoline that the Oregon legislature also approved, supporters of the May 16 ballot initiative are worried that today’s run in gas prices may sink public support for the combined proposal. The Truckload Carriers Association ponied up $100,000 in February to help pay for a $4.1 million advertising campaign, and voted late last month to donate another $100,000 to the effort. Trucking companies that operate in Oregon should dig deep as well and help fund the effort.

Unlike elections in which voters cast their ballots in a booth on Election Day, the Oregon referendum is being conducted by mail. Voters will receive ballots later this month, meaning money is needed right now to help pay for additional circular mailings and broadcast advertisements. Oregon is the state that invented the weight-distance tax, and killing it off once and for all would send a clear message to Kentucky, New Mexico and New York — the other states still holding on to remnants of the archaic tax — to follow suit.