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March 22, 2000 9:50 AM, EST

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho endorsed a $27 million settlement that would provide refunds to interstate carriers that overpaid the state’s weight-distance tax and reform the truck tax system, which was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge.

In finding that the tax discounts offered to truckers hauling certain agricultural and mineral products discriminated against interstate carriers, the court ordered Idaho to collect from all carriers using the same fee schedule.

American Trucking Associations filed the lawsuit in hopes it would bolster efforts to get rid of the tax system altogether. The industry has opposed weight-distance taxes, claiming they are easily evaded and an administrative burden to collect for both carriers and the state.

Idaho is just one front of the industry’s war on the tax system. ATA and its state affiliates are also fighting to remove weight-distance taxes in the other four states that retain them – Kentucky, New Mexico, New York and Oregon.

For the full story, see the Mar. 20 print edition of Transport Topics. .