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June 19, 2000 9:40 AM, EDT

With judicial consent, the final nail was hammered into the coffin containing Idaho’s weight-distance tax.

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State Judge Michael McLaughlin of the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court in Ada County approved the $27 million settlement for carriers that overpaid Idaho’s weight-distance tax. In addition to blessing the demise of the tax, he also approved its replacement with higher vehicle registration fees.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne signed the legislation containing the settlement and tax repeal in April. However, the package’s enactment was contingent on the judicial go-ahead, which McLaughlin gave June 13.

McLaughlin set the whole repeal process in motion when he ruled in February in favor of a lawsuit filed by American Trucking Associations. The organization argued Idaho’s truck tax system, which charged a different rate to haulers of certain agricultural and natural commodities, unconstitutionally discriminated against interstate commerce.

For the full story, see the June 19 print edition of Transport Topics. .

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