5/5/09-State budget negotiations at the Florida statehouse are nearing completion with inclusion of a 35 percent increase in motor vehicle registration fees. The expense of registering an 80,000-pound truck would increase from about $1,000 to $1,300.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association issued a Call to Action last week as a conference committee was preparing to work out differences between the House plan to increase vehicle registration fees by 100 percent and the Senate plan to bump fees by 10 percent.
Also drawing the ire of OOIDA and truckers in the state were plans to route the increased revenue into the state’s general revenue fund.
In what could be considered a win for truckers in the state, negotiators settled on a 35 percent rate increase.
Senate Transportation Chairman Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, was the lead negotiator for the Senate in the conference committee. He also was the biggest advocate for truckers in the effort to reduce the proposed 100 percent increase.
“I had concern not only about the little guy and gal. Many of them are independent truckers. When I found out the cost they pay now on their annual renewal and what it was going to jump to if we took the House provision; that’s the last thing they can afford in the economic situation they are facing,” Fasano told Land Line.
While the new revenue still is earmarked for general revenue, another change made in negotiations stops the diversion from roads in 2015.
According to state figures, the plan will result in about $200 million annually being directed away from transportation for other uses during the next six years. About $34 million of that amount will come from the already shallow pockets of commercial drivers.
Florida truckers were angered by the initial effort to double the motor vehicle registration fee that already can reach $1,000 for an 80,000-pound truck. Having the fee increase trimmed by two-thirds provided little solace for truckers in the state.
“I guess having a bloody nose is better than having your head cut off,” owner-operator and OOIDA Life Member David Sweetman of Tallahassee, FL, told Land Line.
Sweetman recognized that the 35 percent increase is a softer blow but the affect it has on truckers’ pocketbooks cannot be played down.
“It still hits the pocket pretty hard,” he said.
Earmarking the higher fees for general revenue is like pouring salt in the wounds of truckers who never have been able to afford to help foot the bill for much, let alone other state budgets.
“They’re not even using our money to help us on the highways. If they used our tax money for things that it should be used for that would be one thing but they keep getting deeper and deeper into our pockets because they don’t know enough to say they’ve got enough money,” Sweetman said.
“This is another way to fleece us out of money and we’re not getting anything for our return.”
Lawmakers are expected to vote on the state budget Friday, May 8.

4/30/09-Florida truckers are keeping a watchful eye on state budget negotiations in Tallahassee that include the possibility of motor vehicle registration fee increases of as much as 100 percent. The issue has drawn attention in recent days as House and Senate lawmakers are trying to work out their differences on the state’s $65 billion budget.
The push for steep increases in the cost to register large trucks and other vehicles spurred OOIDA to issue a Call to Action to its Florida members. The notice encourages truckers in the state to contact their state lawmakers in opposition to what the Association describes as a “ridiculous effort” to double fees for large trucks.
Also drawing the ire of OOIDA and truckers in the state are plans to route the increased revenue into the state’s general revenue fund.
The proposed increases are one of the issues that House and Senate negotiators have not been able to settle their differences. The Senate has not conceded to their House counterparts on this 100 percent fee increase, but only because they have their own plan. Senators have called for increasing vehicle registrations by 10 percent. There plan also would send all new income to the general revenue fund.
According to state figures, the House plan would result in about $100 million being directed away from transportation for other uses. The Senate plan would see about $10 million put to other uses.
Florida truckers are disgusted by efforts to double the cost to tag vehicles that already can exceed $1,500.
Owner-operator and OOIDA member Kit Copeland of Wildwood, FL, described the push to increase fees as “just another way to skin the working people.”
Copeland and fellow owner-operator and OOIDA Life Member Chuck Quackenbush of Brooksville, FL, predicted that if the registration fee increase makes its way into the state’s budget that Florida will see more truckers pack up and leave.
“The cost of doing business in Florida already is too expensive,” Quackenbush told Land Line. “You increase us that much we’ll just go to another state.”
Putting transportation revenues to other uses is another sore subject to truckers.
“It’s ridiculous. They raise the taxes for transportation but it doesn’t go for fixing the roads,” Quackenbush said. “They want to put it into building a library or something.”
Copeland also pointed out that by diverting transportation funds now to other uses, Florida – as well as other states – still have to come back and look for more ways to raise money for roads in the future.
“These states are digging around for anything they can do to line their pockets more. It’s starting to get real aggravating. We’re out here busting our butts. They’re sitting around deciding how else to take our money,” Copeland said.
Nearly a dozen conference committees are meeting this week to consider separate parts of the budget. Any issues unresolved by Friday, May 1, will be “bumped” to budget chairs. They will have until Sunday, May 3, to reach agreement on remaining issues before giving presiding officers a final crack at compromise.
A final vote on the budget could take place as early as May 7.