Already waylaid by the recession and one of the highest tax-and-fee schedules in the region, Colorado's struggling truckers now are being hamstrung by late fees slapped on their vehicles under legislation that the Ritter administration pushed through the 2009 General Assembly, a trucking industry representative said today.
Testifying at the Capitol before the Transportation Legislation Review Committee, Colorado Motor Carriers Association President Greg Fulton told the panel that a sweeping, $250 million fee hike on registering cars and trucks in the state yielded "unintended consequences": putting the chill on idled truckers trying to dig out of the economic slump.
"This penalizes folks who have been hard hit by the recession and have made a prudent and rational decision," Fulton said of often-small trucking firms that took their rigs off the road--their drivers already having been laid off amid economic doldrums--to spare them from thousands of dollars per truck in regisration fees and taxes. Another $25 to $100 in late fees per tractor and trailer not only is unfair but also stymies trucking firms' ability to bounce back.
The testimony girded Republicans on the committee, who with fellow GOP colleagues had unanimously opposed the so-called FASTER bill's fee hikes during the legislative session. It was passed by by ruling Democrats and signed by Gov. Riiter last spring.
"They want to fine these companies for putting people back to work," said Senate GOP Caucus Chair Mike Kopp, of Littleton, who sits on the transportation review committee.
 Rep. Frank McNulty |
The FASTER legislation's late fees have been riling the motoring public since the bill took effect in June; reports in the news media have abounded with accounts of angry motorists--even owners of boat trailers--who were blindsided by the fees even though many could demonstrate extenuating circumstances.
FASTER took what had been a $10 late fee that could be waived at the discretion of county clerks and turned it into a statewide mandate that superscedes the clerks and now can run anywhere from $25 to $100.
While the bill already has come under fire for being unfair, Fulton pointed out in today's testimony to the committee that the mandate also stands in the way of the state's economic recovery by setting up another stumbling block for a vital industry. Fulton noted that up to 50 percent of the fleets at some Colorado trucking firms have been taken off the road as the recession has deepened, and it only makes sense for those companies not to pay substantial commercial regislation fees when their vehicles aren't even on the highways. Fining them for registering the vehicles late once the economy picks up not only adds insult to injury but also stands in the way of bringing their payrolls back to full strength, he said.
Committee Republican Sen. Nancy Spence, of Centennial, said in that light, the Ritter fines make no sense.
"This is a slap in the face to the trucking industry," Spence said. "And it comes just as the industry is trying to bounce back from this crippling recession."
During Fulton's testimony, Spence's fellow committee Republican Rep. Frank McNulty, of Highlands Ranch, said vital industries like trucking are precisely the kind that the state should be courting instead of punishing.
"The economic development policy of this state has got to be more diverse," McNulty told fellow committee
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Sen. Nancy Spence |
members. "Fundamentally, this (the fines) is an economic development issue."
Republicans on the committee also reiterated their frustration with the FASTER legislation's fee hikes in general. The bill raises vehicle-registration fees on a typical family car by $30 to $40 and more than $700 on some trucks.
Earlier in today's hearing, Kopp had pressed Colorado Department of Transportation Director Russ George for an accounting of whether the bill had achieved its promised goal of creating jobs and repairing the state's faulty bridges. Kopp expressed frustration after George could not provide details.