11 www.ortrucking.org Issue 2 | 2024 of weight mile taxes by the legislature and seeks a combined estimated relief of around $925,000. Trucks represent 15% of vehicle miles traveled in the state, but more than one-third of all taxes owed by Oregon motorists have been paid by trucking companies. ODOT estimates for the 2023–2025 study that heavy vehicles will overpay by approximately $193 million per year, according to court documents. Not only does this lawsuit seek to correct an imbalance in the system in accordance with the Oregon Constitution, but it places additional pressure on the legislature to act. With the 2025 transportation package on the horizon, the lawsuit provided an opportunity to drive discussion in the 2024 session about possible solutions. The Joint Transportation Committee was not given much flexibility by leadership for issues they could move forward in 2024. There was a small transportation omnibus bill, but that merely made tweaks to existing programs at ODOT and DEQ. Because of their limited scope of work this session, the committee primarily served as a venue for long-term transportation funding issues. ODOT presented multiple times to describe their work, funding woes, and how they hope to resolve them. The committee had plenty of opportunities to voice their concerns, and despite previously glossing over some of the agency’s missteps, ODOT was more upfront this year about their problems. The Director of ODOT plainly stated on the record that trucking has been overpaying, which is an improvement over other hearings that only broadly claimed that there was an imbalance in the system. In one hearing, time was given to call out the elephant in the room of heavy-duty vehicles overpayment. Three bills were discussed by members of the committee: • SB 1543, introduced by Sen. Findley (R-Eastern Oregon), would have lowered the weight-mile taxes and limited ODOT spending by an amount to be determined later. • SB 1519, introduced by Sen. Boquist (D-Polk County), would have lowered weight-miles taxes, and directed ODOT to adopt rules so they could issue refunds to taxpayers who overpaid weight-mile taxes in recent years. It also would have lowered ODOT spending as in SB 1543. • HB 4165, introduced by Rep. Boshart Davis (R-Albany), would have required ODOT to prepare and submit a report on the statutory changes needed to balance costs between light and heavy vehicles. Even though legislative leadership did not have the appetite to address these issues head-on this session, it is now more apparent than ever that the legislature needs to rectify the imbalance and give clear direction to ODOT for how to operate and manage their system. OTA will be at the head table in helping negotiate a transportation package in 2025 that addresses these issues and finishes the promises of the 2017 transportation package. Warehouse Regulations About halfway into the 2023 Legislative Session, Rep. Ricki Ruiz (D-Gresham) introduced a bill that would have created a series of burdensome requirements on a wide range of industries with warehouse workers. In the wake of bills in New York, Washington, and other states, the bill targeted the quota system at Amazon distribution centers. However, it was so overreaching that it would have considered trucks as if they were rolling warehouses. The bill died last year, and the sponsor spent the interim working
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