If Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposed budget passes, the trucking industry in Minnesota will be looking at some sizeable changes, including a 5.5% sales tax for trucking services.
Minnesota Trucking Assn. (MTA) President John Hausladen and other MTA representatives are traveling around the state talking to trucking companies to alert them to the fact that the 5.5% tax would be added every time a product is shipped by truck.
For example, if a truck is hauling lumber, there would be a tax for trucking the raw material out of the woods and to the mill, Hausladen said. It would be taxed again to haul it to a plant. It would be taxed yet again to haul it to the distributor, he said, and finally, it could be taxed if it’s trucked to the person purchasing the lumber to build something.
That has a “huge multiplier effect,” Hausladen said. “It’s hard on small businesses in Minnesota.”
Minnesota would be one of only five states with a tax on trucking services, Hausladen said.
“We want to reach out to businesses and understand their needs,” Hausladen told the Duluth News Tribune.
The trucking association will hold a meeting in Duluth at noon March 8 at the Green Mill Restaurant, 340 S. Lake Ave.
