AAA blasts latest road plan

AAA Idaho has come out against the latest transportation funding plan, saying “it again raises the specter of higher registration fees for cars, while giving big trucks a free pass.” Click below to read AAA’s full statement.

For Immediate Release
April 23, 2009

AAA BLASTS ELEVENTH HOUR PLAN
TO BOOST CAR REGISTRATION FEES
Organization says plan is at odds with basic cost responsibility, “paying for what you use”

BOISE -   AAA Idaho said today’s last-minute legislative wrangling to come up with a transportation funding bill is the wrong way to go, because it again raises the specter of higher registration fees for cars, while giving big trucks a free pass.
“There’s plenty of pressure to finish business, and compromise should be part of the process,” said AAA Idaho President Jim Manion. “But a registration fee increase that doesn’t share the burden between cars and trucks inequitable and the wrong way to go.”
AAA Idaho joined the governor and lawmakers to support improvement transportation funding measures earlier this year. But the organization has opposed registration fee legislation this year and last that either targeted cars and light trucks, or completely overlooked the contributions big trucks have to do with Idaho’s failing roads.
AAA Idaho lobbied against the governor’s registration fee bill and two others sponsored by House members earlier this year. The organization cited a 2007 Idaho Transportation Department Cost Allocation Study and other research that shows the biggest trucks using Idaho roads underpay their equitable share of transportation fees and taxes, and have been doing so for years.
“In its current form, it sounds like the new bill will give a free ride to those who do the most damage,”  Manion said.  “During this last-minute debate, the principle of everyone paying their fair share should not be tossed out, just to get something passed.”
The good government group, Common Interest, issued a brief earlier this year. Its members, representing Democrats, Republicans and independents in Idaho, overwhelmingly concluded that Idaho’s registration fees should not be raised until or unless action is taken to correct the current inequities with trucks are addressed.

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AAA Idaho is affiliated with AAA Oregon/Idaho, which provides 720,000 members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive related services. AAA Serves 51 million motorists in North America.