STATEWIDE — Last week, Governor Eric Holcomb laid out a billion dollar plan to raise tolls for semi-trucks on the Indiana Toll Road in northern Indiana.
The plan is to increase tolls for truckers by 35-percent, with the money raised from the increase to go towards finishing the last stage of I-69 construction in southern Indiana and towards repairing crumbling roads throughout the state.
Truckers are none to happy with the plan, according to Gary Langston, President of the Indiana Motor Truck Association. He said it doesn’t make sense to “tax” only truckers and not everyone who uses the toll road regardless of what they drive.
“It’s a bank shot is what it is,” Langston said. “The administration likes to make people think that as long as it’s only on trucks no one else will be impacted when really that’s actually not the case.”
Langston said increasing tolls on trucks means it will cost more for trucking companies to haul goods. That it turn will force trucking companies to charge more to transport these goods. He said this means you as a consumer will end up paying more for products you buy.
“The top semi-truck configuration, which is probably a triples-combination, will probably cost more than $100 now to go from one end of the toll road to the other,” Langston said. “In that configuration, that is a 30-to-40-dollar increase.”
“The other problem with this plan is that there are hundred of millions of dollars in this plan that are going places that are in no way associated with the roads,” Langston added. “They are going to towards hiking and biking trails and things like that.”
Langston calls that a waste of money. He also thinks it’s irresponsible to implement more taxes for road funding when the state still hasn’t spent all the money it has accrued from the gas tax hike passed by the General Assembly in 2016.
(PHOTO: Chris Davis/WIBC)
