Industry Wire

State Adjournments Brings Victories in Blocked Legislation

Several tax and fee increases fought by TRALA have been declared dead upon the adjournment of the state legislatures in which they were pending. Among the most significant proposals TRALA was battling were significant registration fee increases in Illinois and a new lease gross receipts tax in Texas.

A doubling of vehicle registration fees under Illinois House Bill 448 was stalled in the legislative process through a lobbying campaign led by the Illinois Trucking Association. TRALA teamed up with the Illinois Trucking Association to help kill the proposed fee hike that would have applied to all classes of motor vehicles with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of 8,000 pounds or more.

The Illinois Vehicle Registration fee increase was introduced in February 2008. Though it was considered by the both the Committee on Rules and the Committee on Transportation, Roads and Bridges, the ITA successfully convinced lawmakers increasing fees on commercial trucks was the wrong idea in the current economic climate. The proposal was finally put to rest without action when the Illinois legislature adjourned May 31, 2009.

With the help of the Texas Motor Transport Association, TRALA strongly opposed Texas Senate Bill 996 which would have imposed a new 6.25% gross receipts tax on motor vehicle leases with terms longer than 180 days. Existing law only imposed a tax on rentals of 180 days or less. Also proposed in the bill was a new surcharge on the lease of diesel-powered vehicles to help fund the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan. Trucks manufactured in model year 1997 or later with a GVW of 14,000 pounds or more, would have been subject to a surcharge of 1%. For model years 1996 and earlier, the charge would be 2.5%. TRALA and TMTA worked directly with the bill’s sponsor Senator Kip Averitt (R-Waco) and expressed concern about the impacts of the legislation. Senate Bill 996 was introduced in February 2009 and was successfully stalled in the Committee on Finance when the Texas legislature adjourned on June 1, 2009.

For more information about the efforts to defeat the Illinois truck registration fee increase and the Texas gross lease receipts tax, contact TRALA’s Tom James at 703-299-9120 or at tjames@trala.org.