Truckers saddled with new user fee in Connecticut

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a bill that authorizes the state to impose a highway user fee, or tax, on Class 8 through 13 trucks.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Will Haskell says it is time to stop giving trucking operations a “free ride” in Connecticut.

“Some may ask why impose a fee on trucks,” Haskell, D-Westport, said on the Senate floor. “Because, at this moment Connecticut taxpayers are subsidizing the tremendous wear and tear that large tractor-trailers have on our highways.”

Starting Jan. 1, 2023, HB6688 authorizes tax rates to increase incrementally for trucks starting at 26,000 pounds. Specifically, rates will range from 2.5 cents per mile for trucks with a gross weight of 26,000 pounds to 10 cents per mile for trucks weighing 80,000 pounds.

Trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds are slated to pay 17.5 cents per mile.

‘Easy target’

OOIDA Director of State Legislative Affairs Mike Matousek said it is not a surprise that Connecticut legislative leaders singled out truck drivers.

“This is yet another effort by Gov. Lamont and his anti-trucking allies to raid the bank accounts of some of the hardest working people on the planet,” Matousek said. “Big trucks – especially out-of-state trucks – make for an easy target, and elected officials have picked up on that.

“As an industry, we need to figure out a way to change that dynamic and hold lawmakers more accountable for their bad decisions.”

Senate Republican leader Kevin Kelly of Stratford said the truck tax is a bad look for the state.

“The very people we praised as frontline essential workers during the pandemic, who went above and beyond to transport necessities to us when we could not go very far ourselves, would be the target of this tax,” Kelly said during Senate floor discussion. “And the tax will be passed on to our families.” LL