After a long legal battle fought between OOIDA and New York State, the commercial vehicle decal fee has been ruled unconstitutional and drivers will no longer need to pay it to operate in the state.
Prior to the ruling, any commercial motor vehicle operating in New York State needed to have a decal on their trucks which cost $15 for a registration fee and $4 for the decal itself. While $19 may not seem like a lot of money, OOIDA has pointed out that if other states had similar decal programs, the costs could add up to a significant amount of money.
According to OOIDA’s argument, out-of-state truckers traveling in New York would need to pay the same as in-state truckers. The problem is that in-state truckers travel more miles within New York’s borders, which would mean the tax was levied at a higher cost per-mile for out-of-state truckers.
In fact, other states did used to have similar programs, but they were overturned in the 80’s and 90’s for the same reason that this program was overturned – they placed a burden on interstate commerce.
“Given that history, we were shocked that New York even thought they could get away with this unconstitutional tax,” said OOIDA President and CEO Jim Johnston. “The amount for the New York HUT [highway use tax] decal is $19, which is not huge, but if other states were to implement this tax, it would be huge collectively and in administrative costs.”
Now that OOIDA has won the case, they will be submitting briefs regarding refunds which they estimate could come to more than $30 million.
Source: gobytrucknews, fleetowner, overdrive, truckinginfo
But don’t you already pay taxes to use the highways in states that you drive thru?
Yes. This is just an example of NY arrogance. They do things their own way.
In New York you needed to purchase a HUT (Highway Use Tax) sticker to be able to drive a commercial vehicle in the state. This was on top of the fuel tax, which is roughly 40 cents per gallon, as of 2/5/16. New York also charges a weight mileage tax. Basically for an 80,000 lbs. truck, you need to pay roughly 5 cents per mile for every mile driven in New York state, except for mileage accumulated on the New York State Thruway, which is a toll road.
The fuel taxes you pay are apportioned to the states according to how many miles you drive and how much fuel you purchase in those states. If you never enter New York State, they get none of your tax money.
Hooray! Imagine if every state required trucks to display a sticker from that state. We’d all be going down the road showing 48 colorful stickers!
Believe it or not it used to be like that before they just added the States to the registration ,back in the 80’s get caught in a unpaid state go to jail
Now if you could do that for Oregon that would be great every time I go through Oregon I had to buy a registration permit
Its good OOIDA went after that sticker cost, but the real cost is the NYHUT milage. Unlike IFTA if you buy fuel in high rebate states you can actually get money back instead of paying into it at the end of the quarter. I would like them to go after that racket. I mean don’t I pay taxes when I buy the fuel in NY state? NYHUT was gone for 7 years and in recent times it has come back.
Wayne W, its called double taxation in the state of NY! I read somewhere that NYC makes $37,000,000 a week at the GWB on trucks alone.
Greedy ass state!
I think PA should build some big warehouses as close to NY state line as possible, as well as NJ, everyone delivers there let them come get their stuff from there.
Yeah. I live here because of my wife. I was born and raised here along with in GA. I HATE this state. It bugs me how much this state tax, control & rule their citizens. The majority of NY’s are not only OK with it but they justify it too.
I’m not shocked they thought they could get away with it. They did indeed get away with it. They collected the money for three years didn’t they? Did I miss something or are we all about to get a refund check?
I invite NY to go get to know it’s self better…..in the biblical sense.
Hate the place, picked up there just yesterday, and decided never again….4wheeler drivers cause me too much stress. Paid over $200 in tolls going in and back out. Bridges with clearance heights miss marked . crappy road surface ,narrow lanes.
Just not worth it.
Oh! The City is Crazy worse. Don’t let them fine you. The cop’s are always right. Their word trump’s anything you say. Good luck in court. I got three tickets last time I was there. Lawyer unformed me the name of the game is post pone the hearing as far as you can. That way it is not on my license as long.
This type of activity by state governments is exactly what I’ve been harping on for years. I’ll not go into all the reasons why programs like this must go, I’ll just voice my support for the OOIDA to continue to take on issues like this.
Here are two similar issues that really frost my pumpkin: IRS Form 2290 & IFTA fuel taxes.
Any owner (notice I didn’t say owner/operator) of a heavy duty truck knows what this form is. It’s a $550 fee that supposedly goes to build & maintain the roads. It’s just another way for the Federal govt to extract money from truck owners. Considering the millions of just class 8 trucks on the road, at $550 a pop, that fee alone is a considerable amount of money.
IFTA fuel tax program. This program was put in place by bureaucrats to supposedly “even things out”. It is simply a program to force truckers to pay fuel taxes to states they’ve not purchased fuel in. Not only does this program extract additional fuel taxes from the truck owner, the IFTA stickers cost $50 per year. The idea is that since class 8 trucks carry so much fuel (200 gallons or more), they can buy fuel in one state, drive completely through most other states and not pay any fuel taxes. While that last part MAY be true, the fact is that all trucks are already paying taxes that are supposed to be distributed by the Federal & state govts to help build & maintain the roads.
The OOIDA should take on these issues on behalf of ALL truck owners.
There’s not much profit in trucking unless you’re a mega-carrier, and programs like these two are a drag on the trucking industry and BOTH should be abolished.
I would advocate for a complete refund of any and all monies collected, ESPECIALLY from the IRS Form 2290 program.
Oh, don’t get me started on that Form 2290 and the $550/vehicle tax. It isn’t enough you have to pay an arm & leg for the apportioned plates, the IFTA stickers, NY HUT, Mass road use tax, bingo cards, various states’ ad valorem taxes…the Feds want that HVUT, too.
See my comment below about the NY HUT thing. Yeah, that was fun too.
@Madcracka, we could hit NYC in the drawers over that GWB revenue if we all complied with the actual law in NYC regarding truck size/weight limitations. These laws are not enforced because the city makes that much dang money on our vehicles traversing the GWB.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/sizewt.shtml
they settled this about 25 maybe more yrs ago and the issue is coming up again.The law said they can’t but the State said we ‘re going to do it anyway. That ‘s NY. If I remember correctly they were ordered to pay back all the money they collected that year.
So this means if you bought one you get that 19 back? If so that would be great, setting as how, I bought my first one last year, never got it. Got a load delivering to CT and dispatch faxed the paperwork to me, but I got charged for a second one. Then when I went in for my new base plate, got the actual sticker and got charged a third time lol. Got money back for two of them. Took sine doing and telling dispatch I could forward my email pay stubs showing the deductions for every one.
Between this and a recent story about CCW reciprocation in VA if this government gets any more disfunctional we may end up having stricter boarder crossings between states than Mexico.
CA: is that a clean idle diesel?
NY: HUT sticker?
VA: you need a CCW permit from Virginia
Nazi Germany: Papers please!
I’d love if some state decided you couldn’t transit it without a “state plate” issued at the state line. This is the crazy world we live in.
I did the whole fuel/use/road tax thing years ago. I absolutely HATED doing NY HUT taxes–laden v. unladen miles, thruway/non-thruway miles, rates based on GVW’s on a quarterly basis. I actually made a xerox of the return so I could do it in pencil for the various rates to see which came out better. Finally, NY sent me a letter saying that due to the Co.’s low mileage in NY (we were based in WI), I could go to an annual return. That lasted all of one year; next thing I know, back to quarterly, I wrote letters, filed an appeal–no go. Back to this whole mess every three months. And for the few miles we did do there, dropping $19 for decals on each vehicle, ‘cos the Co. was more or less expedited, so you never knew which vehicle would go thru NY.
Thanks for nothing OOIDA. Now NY will just raise the HUT tax… But the stupid sticker will be free. Great job.
Further proof of a hollow victory…
“While the decal fee is no longer in effect, the requirement to display the decal on vehicles is still in effect. Enforcement will expect vehicles subject to the tax to display a New York HUT decal or provide a trip permit.”
Truckers get screwed worse than just about every other category of paid slaves in this country. This is due to the fact that we just talk and are not willing to strike. Trans. workers in France have more balls than we do.
Guess OOIDA didn’t change anything, they still require the sticker and they charge for it. 2020