The Arkansas Trucking Association, which backed off of a proposed increase in the state’s diesel tax last year, says it will make another run at it in the 2013 legislative session.
"We’ll launch a campaign this summer and fall for roads and bridges in which the trucking industry will offer to pay a higher diesel tax," Lane Kidd, association president, told Arkansas Business’ Whispers column this week.
Truckers pay at least 90 percent of the diesel tax in Arkansas, Kidd said. And unlike railroad companies, which own their own traffic lanes, the trucking industry has to work with government to make capital improvements.
So how much more in tax will the industry propose to pay?
Kidd said he’s not ready yet to say how much the industry will propose to pay.
The ATA had backed a plan during the 2011 legislative session to raise the state diesel tax by 5 cents per gallon and support another bill to exempt commercial trucks and semi-trailers from the state sales tax. The Legislature approved the sales tax exemption but referred to the voters the proposal to increase the diesel tax.
But polling by the association indicated that voters would likely reject the tax increase.
Ultimately, the ATA supported a renewal of the existing Interstate Highway Rehabilitation Bond Program and a repeal of the trucks and trailers sales tax exemption law.