Truckers slam Lamont’s plan to raise $90 million in ‘mileage tax’

From CT Post.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s planned “mileage tax” will likely allow out-of-state truckers to avoid the expense, while hitting hard Connecticut’s 8,000 registered commercial haulers, according to the leader of the state organization representing them.

Joseph Sculley, president of the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut Inc., said Wednesday morning in advance of Lamont’s noontime budget presentation to the General Assembly, that he hopes state lawmakers ignore the proposal, just like they rejected the governor’s plan for trucks-only highway tolls last year.

Sculley said that Connecticut tractor trailers pay an average of about $17,000 in annual state and federal fees, including more than $9,000 per vehicle to the state.

The 500-member organization includes every kind of hauler, from beverage delivery to construction and long-haulers. He recalled that since the last time state officials proposed a mileage tax back in 2017, most of the 22 states that had similar levies abandoned them because of the trouble in collecting the money from trucks that pass quickly through states.

“This is a tax that will slam in-state business and out-of-state trucking companies are going to evade it,” Sculley said in reaction to a Hearst CT Media report indicating that Lamont’s budget includes $90 million in new revenue from the heaviest trucks on state roads and highways. “We know that because it happens in other states.”

See the complete article from CT Post here: Truckers slam Lamont’s plan to raise $90 million in ‘mileage tax’