Ways & Means introduces truck fee bill

The House Ways & Means Committee met just now, though no meeting had been scheduled or announced as of the House’s adjournment this morning. The leadership panel introduced a new bill to raise registration fees for heavy trucks by 5 percent, as originally proposed in the governor’s transportation initiative; the governor also said he wants a task force to study further possible increases. The measure follows Rep. Frank Henderson’s proposal for a small increase in registration fees for cars and trucks, by adjusting rate brackets. Rep. Bill Killen, D-Boise, said, “It improves it, because one of the complaints we’ve been hearing is they should share the pain.” But, he said, “It’s not a lot more money.” The fiscal impact of the new bill isn’t entirely clear yet, but it may be in the range of $2.4 million.

Reporters were notified by House GOP communications specialist Chuck Malloy at noon that the Ways & Means Committee would be meeting “soon.” When reporters arrived upstairs about two minutes later, the meeting was over. Killen said, “An hour ago I was told that we were going to meet in a few minutes.” He said he was left waiting for 55 minutes.