The battle continues

With Connecticut’s truck-only highway use tax now in effect, the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut says it is considering legal action to stop what they feel is an unnecessary expense for truckers.

The tax – which is intended to help fund improvements to the state’s infrastructure – applies to commercial vehicles that carry a classification of Class 8 through Class 13. Fees are calculated based on the vehicle’s weight and number of miles driven in the state and range from 2.5 to 17.5 cents per mile.

The state estimates the highway use tax to generate $45 million in its first year and up to $90 million each subsequent year.

However, the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut argues that the state doesn’t need those funds. The group points out that when the law passed, the state was unaware of $5.38 billion in federal funding that would be coming their way from the 2021 infrastructure bill. Those new funds put the state’s Special Transportation Fund budget in surplus for the foreseeable future.

Despite these arguments, Gov. Ned Lamont and others claim the state needs dedicated revenue streams – like the highway use tax – to maintain Connecticut’s bond rating.

John Blair, MTAC president, told Land Line Now that a truck-only toll or tax has been a pet project of Lamont’s for some time, with Lamont mentioning the idea when he first ran for governor in 2010.

After being elected to the office in 2018, Lamont attempted to advance truck-only tolling measures, but was unsuccessful and abandoned the idea in February 2020.

“Ultimately what we ended up with – what I believe is the ‘pound of flesh’ here – is the truck-only tax,” Blair said.

The trucking group has been vocal regarding their opposition to the new tax, repeatedly calling upon state lawmakers to repeal the law. Blair said that, while there has been bipartisan support to repeal the highway use tax, he believes it’s unlikely the General Assembly will make any changes to the new law, which has left the group considering the next step.

“If we don’t get a legislative or regulatory remedy, which I don’t think we will, we are looking at the legal options,” he said.

Among the options, Blair says the group is considering working with attorneys for the American Trucking Associations to file suit against the state. ATA’s legal team has experience with similar cases, successfully arguing Rhode Island’s truck-only tolls were unconstitutional. While those past successes give Blair hope, he knows there likely won’t be a speedy resolution.

“We believe there is a good case to take, so ultimately that might be the path we have to take,” he said. “And that’s going to take a couple years.” LL