The Illinois House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted Feb. 20 to eliminate a new fee in Illinois that many truckers cited as a reason for leaving the state.

By a vote of 90-7, the House OK’d HB412, a bill that would eliminate the commercial distribution fee in Illinois as soon as the bill becomes effective and restore the rolling stock exemption back to its terms before the passage of that fee.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the vote as “a stinging rebuke of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's fiscal policies.”

The uproar started June 20, 2003, with the passage of SB841. That bill established the Commercial Distribution Fee, a 36 percent surcharge on truck registration fees.

For trucks that run all of their miles in the state, SB841 increased last year’s registration fee of $2,790 by $1,005 to a new total of $3,795. The state imposed the new fee immediately on intrastate truckers, whose plates were due the same day the bill became effective, July 1.

OOIDA members operating in Illinois called their elected officials and urged them to do away with the fee, and the association had supported several bills to overturn it. Intermodal port truckers in the Chicago area organized several angry protest meetings during which they expressed their anger over the fee to legislators and other state officials in attendance.

Illinois had tried several times to alleviate truckers’ concerns over the new fee, taking such actions as extending the deadline for payment. But despite those efforts, a number of individual truckers and even entire motor carriers told Land Line and other media outlets they planned to leave the state for good.

While supporters hoped HB412 would stem the outflow, some wondered if the bill will have an effect soon enough.

"My question is, what are we going to do about the businesses that have already left?" state Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, shouted during a floor speech quoted in The Post-Dispatch.

HB412 now moves to the Senate.