CT Legislature Passes Highway Usage Fee For Truckers

CONNECTICUT — The state General Assembly has approved a bill imposing mileage-based fees on tractor-trailers that travel Connecticut's highways.

House Bill 6688, "An Act Concerning A Highway Use Fee," passed the Senate by a 22-14 vote very early Wednesday morning, after the House voted in its favor by 88-59 Tuesday afternoon.

The fees imposed on truckers would be calculated based on the truck's weight and the number of miles driven in the state. The measure establishes per-mile tax rates that increase based on vehicle gross weight. The charges will be levied on all carriers of heavy, multi-unit motor vehicles, largely trucks that operate on any highway or public road in Connecticut.

If Gov. Ned Lamont signs the bill into law, it will go into effect Jan. 1. 2023.

From that point onward, carriers would be required to file returns and remit fees to the Department of Revenue Services monthly and need to obtain permits from DRS, which can be suspended or revoked. Rates begin at 2.5 cents per mile for vehicles between 26,000 and 28,000 pounds, to 17.5 cents per mile for vehicles weighing more than 80,000 pounds. No vehicle weighing less than 26,000 pounds will be considered under the fee, and a single-trailer, three-or-four-axle truck will be the lightest vehicle considered under the fee.

Beyond the hit to the carrier's bottom lines, the devil will be in the record keeping. The bill requires each carrier to maintain, on a monthly basis, a list of all eligible motor vehicles it operated or caused to be operated in the month. Carriers must maintain these lists for at least four years after the month's date and make them available to DRS upon request.

"Why impose a fee on trucks? Because at this moment, Connecticut taxpayers are subsidizing the enormous wear and tear that large tractor-trailers have on our highways. Just maintaining and repairing the damage of large trucks costs us an estimated $95 million per year," Sen. Will Haskell (26th District), Senate Chair of the Transportation Committee, said in a news release following the vote Wednesday morning.

Republicans, who mobilized in recent weeks to defeat this bill and the governor's Transportation and Climate Initiative, have referred to both measures as "gas and food taxes." The highway use fees imposed on truckers "will cause prices on all necessities shipped throughout our state – from groceries to home heating oil – to increase," according to a Senate Republican petition.

Estimates from the Office of Fiscal Analysis place revenues, to be funneled into the Special Transportation Fund, around $45 million in new revenue beginning the first year.