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May 24, 2000 10:50 AM, EDT

Oregon voters overwhelmingly defeated a ballot measure that would have repealed the state’s weight-distance tax on trucks, added a diesel fuel tax and increased the state tax on gasoline.

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The May 16 vote was not a surprise, as backers of Measure 82 admitted defeat in April after reading the results of public polls ("White Flag Raised in Oregon," 4-17, p. 1). But the tallies at the end of the mail-in balloting process were more lopsided than had been expected

Nearly 90% of voters said “no” to the tax package passed by the Oregon Legislature in 1999.

Opponents of Oregon’s weight-distance tax — hated by truckers for its cumbersome reporting requirements and ease of evasion — vowed to recover from the setback, perhaps by attacking the tax system with a lawsuit similar to the one that recently lead to the demise of neighboring Idaho’s ton-mile tax.

For the full story, see the May 22 print edition of Transport Topics. .