CT truckers slam highway truck tax: 'Why do I want to stay here?'

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Big rig American tractor trailer semi truck on the highway freeway rural sunrise

David Palumbo, a North Branford trucking executive, participated in a Wednesday news conference in Hartford with other truckers and Republicans opposed to the highway use tax, which took effect in January.

HARTFORD — State truckers joined Republican lawmakers on Wednesday to criticize the highway use tax that took effect in January, predicting higher consumer prices and financial burdens on their businesses.

At a time when robust tax revenues are expected to provide budget surpluses in the hundreds of millions of dollars for the next few years, they said there is no need for the added business expenses and resulting increases in consumer prices. They stressed that the highway tax's estimated $90 million a year was supposed to target out-of-state 18-wheelers, it seems the bulk of the charges will fall on state companies.

In fact, of the $4.3 million collected by the state since January 1, $3.3 million came from out of staters, according to the state Department of Revenue Services.

Lumber and mulch haulers, dairy farmers, and cement shippers warned that the higher price of doing business is already taking a big bite out of their bottom lines. For David Palumbo, who owns an eponymous family trucking company in North Branford, the new tax means a new full-time employee at a cost of $85,000 just to track the daily routes of company drivers, plus an estimated $100,000 to pay the road use levy.

"This bill is going to impact us in multiple ways," Palumbo, one of several truckers who spoke with reporters in the Legislative Office Building. "We don't really know how we're going to afford this other than passing it on to every consumer that's in this room. Everybody in the state of Connecticut is going to pay. To me this wasn't thought out hard enough, long enough, with any kind of consensus of how this is going to work; how it's going to be audited."

Palumbo said the higher prices will discourage his children from joining the business, with about 100 vehicles that carry powdered cement throughout the Northeast. "Why do I want to stay here?" said Palumbo, who is also the Democratic Town Committee chairman in North Branford. "Sell the business? Close the business? I'll put 70 people on unemployment. Is that the right thing for Connecticut? I don't think so. I want to keep growing my business. I don't know how I'm going to grow it."

Brennan Sheahan, an official at Connecticut Mulch in Enfield, said that the daily paperwork is piling up for his drivers, who now have to keep track of how many miles they operate on state highways.

"We really need to understand the implications that this is having on the state of Connecticut," said House minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, who stressed that majority Democrats had rejected an associated bill on the issue, forcing Republicans to use a tactic called petitioning, to place the item on a public hearing agenda with the legislative Finance Committee on Friday. "It's a priority for our caucus. We have real concerns. How is it being collected? Who is really paying it? What is the administrative expenses going into these businesses?"

Candelora described Lamont's position as "really dug in" in defense of the highway fee. "If we're going into a budget cycle with surpluses and a transportation fund that currently has a surplus, we're very well poised to put a pause on this program," Candelora said.

Gov. Ned Lamont stands by the new tax and the Democratic co-chairmen of the tax-writing Finance Committee supported the program that was adopted by the General Assembly in 2021, as a means to help support state transportation projects and was sold to state lawmakers as focused on out-of-state haulers to contribute to improving state highways.

"Until January 1st of this year, Connecticut was the only state on the entire East Coast that had not assessed a fee on the heaviest tractor-trailer trucks that impact our public highways," said state Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, the veteran co-chairman of the Finance Committee. "The Republicans have availed themselves of a procedure allowed under our rules, and we will abide by that. However, my co-chair, state Rep. Maria Horn, (D-Salisbury) and I have made our intentions clear by not raising this bill in the Finance Committee."

Adam Joseph, Lamont's communications director, said Wednesday that since the user fee took effect, 17,300 out-of-state truck companies have paid $3.3 million, while 2,200 in-state truckers have paid $1 million.

"It is incredibly important that Connecticut has the financial resources to rebuild and maintain our bridges, roads, and transportation network," Joseph said. "Stripping funding from the Special Transportation Fund will result in the State being unable to undertake critical projects to improve safety, reduce traffic and get you to where you are going on time."

[email protected] Twitter: @KenDixonCT