Truckers already paying highway fees

MTAC President Joe Sculley’s Letter to the Hartford Courant Editor:

In your March 30 editorial “Save the Roads with Tolls,” you state that “trucks that wear heavily on our highways have been getting a free ride.” This is not true. Out-of-state commercial trucks that travel in Connecticut pay taxes and fees to Connecticut through interstate compacts.

Connecticut nets more than $14 million in fuel use tax revenue from out-of-state trucks annually, through participation in the International Fuel Tax Agreement. The truckers pay based on the fuel they use in Connecticut, regardless of where they purchased it.

Separately, Connecticut collects about $15.6 million in apportioned registration fees from out-of-state trucks annually, through participation in the International Registration Plan. The state Department of Motor Vehicles handles the registration plan compliance for Connecticut, and its most recent data, which covers Dec. 1, 2015, through Nov. 30, 2016, shows that out-of-state trucks pay the freight.

Through these two interstate agreements, Connecticut gets nearly $30 million from out-of-state trucks a year.

These two systems were created so that states can receive funds to maintain roads used by out-of-state trucks. Connecticut does not need tolls to get money from out-of-state truckers; we are already getting their money.

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