After a second meeting in two weeks, truckers in the Chicago area are actively opposing unprecedented registration fees hikes in the state.
About 250 truckers met with state officials Wednesday, Oct. 22, in the Chicago suburb of Cicero to discuss what can be done to oppose a recent increase in registration fees that was passed as part of Senate Bill 841.
The measure added 36 percent to the registration fee for trucks that run in Illinois. For trucks that run all of their miles in the state, last year’s fee of $2,790 was increased by $1,005 to a new total of $3,795.
Chicago truckers face a lose-lose situation The problem created by increased registration fees in Illinois is being compounded by the economics of the situation. "The majority of the people in there were crosstown truckers," said Patrick Leonardi, a former owner-operator and now safety director at Central States Trucking in Bensenville, IL. Those truckers carry freight from one rail head to another within the Chicago metropolitan area. Many, for example, go from Bensenville, on the northern side of the area near O’Hare International Airport, to the town of Harvey, which sits on the south side of the area. The trip involves either travel on the Illinois tollway and a $3 toll one way, or potentially hours in heavy city traffic. "The rates in crosstowns - the rate the customer gets billed - has not gone up more than $5 in 20 years," Leonardi said. "They're in the $40 range." The trucker receives about 70 percent of that, he said, and has to take expenses out of that. Martin Chavez, an owner-operator who has helped organize his fellow truckers, confirmed that, saying the fees paid to the truckers vary from $35 to $50 for each load. And, both said, the rates have hardly increased in 20 years. "The rates from the companies are the same . the fuel is all the way to the top and no one's doing anything about it," he said. "We need help. That's why we are doing this." In addition, Chavez said many of the owner-operators were at a disadvantage because larger companies, many of which have terminals, operations or offices in other states, can legally register their trucks in states such as Oklahoma or Texas, where fees are much lower. Chavez said many trucks belonging to larger outfits in the Chicago area carry out-of-state plates, while local owner-operators are left no realistic choice other than paying the higher fee for Illinois plates. "I understand the state needs money; OK," he said. "They want to increase the rate; OK. Then maybe they should send somebody to each and every company to see if they can increase the payment also to the owner-operators." |
In addition, the bill repealed the rolling stock exemption for many trucks based in the state. Trucks that run at least 51 percent of their miles outside of Illinois are still free of the tax, but those that run most of the miles in Illinois must now pay the levy, which is essentially a sales tax on the purchase of truck equipment. For some truckers, the bill could run in the thousands.
Trucks that run in-state are being hit with the full force of both fees. Some in-state truckers found out earlier this year that they would have to pay the fee by Nov. 1 or lose plates they already paid for this year.
Other meetings have already started to spring up over the issue in the Chicago area. Last week, a group of owner-operators and small carriers met in the Chicago suburb of Aurora to protest the fees.
Martin Chavez, an owner-operator who has helped organize his fellow truckers, said he started the meetings in part so that someone from the state would talk with Spanish-speaking owner-operators in the Chicago area who received letters about the increased fees.
"There's a lot of Spanish owner-operators," he said. "They don't know who to talk to, they don't know where to go. They don't know what to do."
"Thirty-six percent - to them [state officials], it's only numbers," Chavez said. "To us, it's money out of the pocket."
Pissed off
Many Illinois truckers were caught off guard when they received letters around Oct. 1 saying they owed the fee this year, even though they already have valid plates.
According to the letter, truckers who receive the bills must pay the fee by Nov. 1. Not paying “may result in revocation or suspension of your vehicle registration.”
A number of aspects of the new fee have truckers in Illinois angered. First and foremost, they say, it’s because they regard the fee as retroactive.
"They can't understand how they can make them pay this going retroactive back to July 1," Cathy Koncilia of OOIDA's Business Services division said. "They were under the impression . this would take place upon renewal date."
"It's like you go to the movies, and once you're inside watching your movie, they say you pay $10 extra or get out," Chavez said.
State officials say the fee is not retroactive, even though the letters arrived three months after the purchase date for in-state plates.
The governor signed the bill at the end of June, Beth Kauffman, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State, said, so the Secretary of State was not able to react quickly enough to get the bills out by July 1.
"The governor signs a bill and then we have to react," Kauffman said. "We couldn't just react in one day. It took us that long to get everything up and running."
Chavez said the state has told some of the truckers that either they can pay the extra fee or they can give up their plates and receive a refund on what they have already paid. The reaction of some truckers, he said, was predictable.
"Everybody will say, send me the money; I quit,' Chavez said.
Truckers gather to discuss solutions
Roughly 250 people attended the second meeting, Oct. 22 in Cicero, said Patrick Leonardi, a former owner-operator and now safety director at Central States Trucking in Bensenville, IL. However, most had not attended the first meeting, held a week ago in Aurora, a nearby suburb, bringing the total who attended meetings to 500. At both meetings, nearly all those in attendance were owner-operators.
"These were a different set," he said. "Most had not been to original meeting. . these were mainly all people from the city and from Cicero and Berwyn."
Three state officials attended the meeting: Rep. Frank Aguilar of Cicero, Sen. Martin Sandoval of the 12th District and Richard Carcol, a policy analyst for the Republican Party. Aguilar voted against the fee increase; Sandoval voted in favor of the hike, but indicated at the meeting that his position had changed, Leonardi said.
Leonardi said most of the discussion at the meeting, which was held in a heavily Hispanic area, was conducted in Spanish.
Of those who took the stage and spoke to the crowd, the most emotional and vocal speakers were getting the most applause.
The state officials told the crowd about three bills that are being introduced during the veto session, which starts Nov. 4.
"They mentioned there's a couple of things in the works, and they wanted them to all be patient," Leonardi said.
While some truckers at the meeting indicated they would accept the bills that spread payments out, but most clearly wanted the fee killed entirely, Leonardi said.
One bill would allow the truckers to delay payment of the Commercial Distribution Fee and split payment over six months. Another would break up payment of the fee over 12 months. A third would eliminate the fee, but only after one year, meaning truckers would have to pay the fee this year to keep their plates.
Chavez never took the stage during the Cicero meeting, Leonardi said, but he was present, backstage. And he was clearly not happy with the proceedings, which Chavez later described as “nothing but talk.”
Legislative options
Rep. Frank Aguilar of Cicero, one of the state officials in attendance, said he suggested that the group write a letter to Gov. Rod Blagojevich asking to see if a way could be found to lower the fees.
But Aguilar and other lawmakers are not waiting for action from Blagojevich. Three bills have been introduced to alleviate or eliminate the fee.
"In my opinion we should completely abolish them [the increased fees]," he said. "I voted against it."
Rep. William Black, along with more than a dozen and a half lawmakers, have sponsored a bill, HB3851, that would end the fee by June 30, 2004. Aguilar told Land Line he supports the bill, which he confirmed would get the state through its current budget crisis, but then lift the burden from truckers after a year’s time. Truckers would still have to pay the fee eventually in order to keep their tags valid, and IRP-plated truckers would still have to pay it to get their tags next year.
He also supports HB3854, introduced by Rep. Tim Smith, which would allow truckers to pay the fee this year over six months instead of all at once.
"Some of these truck drivers, they're small companies, they're usually a one to three to four man operation," Aguilar said. "They're not huge companies that can afford a lot of fees."
Aguilar said he hoped that the state, until a compromise is worked out, would not penalize truckers if they cannot pay the entire fee by Nov. 1.
"Hitting them with 36 percent is way too much," Aguilar said. "Any kind of increase should be gradual."
Meanwhile, Chavez confirmed that the truckers at the meetings were likely to sign the petition or letter that legislators planned to send to Gov. Blagojevich and the secretary of state.
The bill might not be that difficult to get through. The first Senate vote on the fee increase was 32-16 in favor. However, when it reached the House, it passed by only 60-55. And a second vote in the Senate, to concur with House amendments, was only 30-27.
Consequences
If Aguilar and his fellow lawmakers are not successful, the consequences for Illinois are likely to be profound, and the state’s economy and its citizens would pay the price.
"It's going to generate money for the state; that's the governor's objective," he said. "But in the long run, these truckers are going to move out of the state, they're leaving.
"I personally know a couple of them that live in town that are thinking of selling their trucks. If they sell their trucks or leave town, it's going to have a domino effect," Aguilar continued. "You know, these trucks require maintenance. What about the mechanic that services these trucks? There's a few mechanic companies in Cicero that service trucks and they service a lot of trucks. It's going to impact the diesel fuel sales.
"In the long run, we're going to lose," he said, "because all these truckers, they'll just put their trucks up for sale, and they'll leave. And if they have a little bigger operation . they'll just move right next door to Indiana. In the short term, it will generate a lot of revenue for the state. But in the long it's going to cause a loss of jobs and revenue."
Chavez agreed, saying that if action were not taken to end the increase, then after June, a large number of the owner-operators who haul freight in Chicago will likely either park or give up their trucks.
Options for action
Chavez said he and other truckers want to take action to let elected officials know how the fee is affecting them. But despite the desire to take action, Chavez said a strike was not likely. Instead, they are considering some kind of action that would draw attention to their cause without a work stoppage.
That could include a short shutdown of some highways in the Chicago area.
At this point, the plan, sources told Land Line, is to use a number of trucks to tie up specific points in the Chicago road system – the junction of the Kennedy and Edens expressways, the Dan Ryan Expressway, The Stephenson Expressway, the “Spaghetti Bowl” interstate interchange, the 159th St. Tollway exit, which could block Interstate 80, or other roads. The protest would likely take place during rush hour and last as little as 20 minutes, just long enough to be photographed by the dozens of TV and radio traffic helicopters that patrol the city’s highways.
The plan could be carried out, one trucker said, with as few as 100 trucks.
"I feel because they've got the names (of truckers who attended the meetings), because they've got all this other stuff in gear, they may pull this protest, they may do it," the trucker said. "What a photo op; these guys are thinking."
Meanwhile, Chavez said he and other truckers were planning another meeting for 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, to discuss their options. A location for the meeting has not yet been set. He hopes that at that meeting, the group can name spokesmen who can then speak to the governor about what can be done to help the truckers facing the higher fees.
It’s up to you
Whether anything to reduce or delay the fee is passed when the General Assembly returns to Springfield Nov. 4 is up to the truckers, Aguilar said.
"They have to really come to Springfield and make noise," he said. "They have to write letters to the governor. They have to put the pressure. As legislators, we can only do so much."
"There had to be a couple of hundred truck owners at that meeting; that's a sufficient amount to make a statement," Aguilar said. "We need more - this is kind of a wake-up call for them."
"They're small-business owners; they're the ones who are going to pay the price," Aguilar said. "And they have to speak out. As legislators, we need them to speak out; we need them to come to us as a group, a large group, and say 'change these laws.'
"That's what gives them our strength, is when they unite, and there's a large number of them, and we have something to tell the governor," he said. "We're not talking about one business owner or two business owner, we're talking about hundreds and thousands of truck owners that are expressing their concerns about this."
--by Mark H. Reddig, associate editor
Mark Reddig can be reached at mark_reddig@landlinemag.com
| How they voted . Here's a list of the members of the General Assembly, divided based on who voted for and against SB841, which increased registration fees for trucks in the state. |
|
Senate Members James F. Clayborne
Jr. (D) - District 57 Senate
Members Pamela J. Althoff (R)
- District 32 Dan Cronin (R) - District
21 Kirk W. Dillard (R)
- District 24 Adeline Jay Geo-Karis
(R) - District 31 John O. Jones (R) -
District 54 David Luechtefeld (R)
- District 58 Barack Obama (D) -
District 13 Christine Radogno (R)
- District 41 Dale A. Righter (R)
- District 55 Dan Rutherford (R)
- District 53 Todd Sieben (R) - District
45 Ray Soden (R) - District
23 Dave Syverson (R) -
District 34 Lawrence M. Walsh (D)
- District 43 Richard J. Winkel Jr.
(R) - District 52 Senate
Members Steven J. Rauschenberger
(R) - District 22 Peter J. Roskam (R)
- District 48 |
House Members Edward J. Acevedo (D)
- District 2 House Members Frank Aguilar (R) - District
24 Suzanne Bassi (R) - District
54 Patricia R. Bellock (R)
- District 47 Bob Biggins (R) - District
41 Mike Bost (R) - District
115 Dan Brady (R) - District
88 Linda Chapa LaVia (D)
- District 83 Elizabeth Coulson (R)
- District 17 Shane Cultra (R) - District
105 Lee A. Daniels (R) - District
46 Joe Dunn (R) - District
96 Robert F. Flider (D) -
District 101 Jack D. Franks (D) - District
63 Kurt M. Granberg (D) -
District 107 Randall M. Hultgren (R)
- District 95 Kevin Joyce (D) - District
35 Renee Kosel (R) - District
81 David R. Leitch (R) -
District 73 Sidney H. Mathias (R)
- District 53 James H. Meyer (R) - District
48 John J. Millner (R) -
District 55 Donald L. Moffitt (R)
- District 74 Rosemary Mulligan (R)
- District 65 Elaine Nekritz (D) - District
57 JoAnn D. Osmond (R) -
District 61 Carole Pankau (R) - District
45 Raymond Poe (R) - District
99 Chapin Rose (R) - District
110 Keith P. Sommer (R) -
District 106 Ron Stephens (R) - District
102 Art Tenhouse (R) - District
93 Ronald A. Wait (R) - District
69 Jim Watson (R) - District
97 House Members Maria Antonia Berrios
(D) - District 39 House Members Roger L. Eddy (R) - District
109 Sandra M. Pihos (R) -
District 42 |
