TIA talks highway funding, tire registration at event

WASHINGTON—Highway funding, tax reform and tire registration were the big issues tire dealers, repair shop owners and association officials discussed with Capitol Hill staffers during the Tire Industry Association's Federal Lobby Day on Feb. 5.

Approximately 55 representatives of the tire retailing and auto repair industries participated in the event, which began with speeches from current and former members of Congress and progressed to one-on-one meetings with key staff persons in the offices of several top Washington lawmakers.

With the Highway Trust Fund set to run out of money in May, passage of a multi-year transportation funding bill was the main issue TIA advanced during Federal Lobby Day. What TIA did not want to see in a transportation funding package was as important a part of the discussions as what it did.

TIA especially does not want any highway funding option that would reinstate the federal excise taxes on passenger tires and tread rubber, said TIA Executive Vice President Roy Littlefield III in a position paper he wrote for Federal Lobby Day.

Both taxes, Littlefield said, were repealed in the Surface Transportation Act of 1982.

TIA also does not want to see a national weight-distance tax on truckers, higher tolls, further privatization of roads and highways or Vehicle Miles Traveled charges, according to Littlefield. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., already has asserted his opposition to the most often discussed option, an increase in the motor fuels tax, Littlefield said.

“TIA is taking two strong and specific positions,” he said. “First, eliminate diversion. We are approaching 50 percent of the funds collected for the Highway Trust Fund diverted for non-highway purposes. Second, engage creatively in future highway funding.”

TIA was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the Partnership to Rebuild American Act sponsored in the last Congress by Rep. John Delaney, D-Md. The bill had some 75 co-sponsors in the House, and Delaney plans to reintroduce it this year.

The legislation would establish a $50 billion American Infrastructure Fund through the Treasury Department, with leveraged financing of up to $750 billion for state and local governments to fund infrastructure projects.

The bill also would provide tax incentives for multinational corporations to move an estimated $2 trillion in offshore profits back to the U.S. in return for using some of the collected taxes to repair the nation's infrastructure. That would provide some $150-200 billion to the Highway Trust Fund over six years, Delaney said in his speech at Federal Lobby Day.

“This has a very good chance of getting done,” Delaney said of his legislation. He noted that President Obama used the bill's tax reform proposals in his administration's new infrastructure proposals.

“His tax rates are higher, though,” Delaney said of Obama's proposal.

Besides transportation funding, TIA members lobbied against reinstatement of mandatory tire registration, which also was repealed in the Surface Transportation Act of 1982.

The Rubber Manufacturers Association called for reinstating mandatory tire registration before a public hearing of the National Transportation Safety Board in December 2014, citing low registration rates under voluntary tire registration.

TIA and its members, however, objected to a return to the old registration system. As originally mandated, they said, the old system would place all the burdens of registration on tire retailers, with fines of up to $800,000 per retail location for noncompliance.

During Federal Lobby Day, participants also called for tax reform. Especially high on TIA's agenda are a permanent repeal of the estate tax and a long-term reauthorization of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which allows small businesses to deduct a portion of the first-year wages paid to military veterans, disabled workers and workers from underprivileged groups.

Other speakers at Federal Lobby Day included former Maryland Democratic Rep. Al Wynn and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D.-Md.

Petitioning the government for grievances has been a crucial part of the legislative process since the early days of the Republic, Wynn told Lobby Day participants.

“We want to get legislation moving, but we don't know tires,” Wynn said of Congress. “When you come here, you bring not only your role in your community, but your intimate knowledge of how our business affects your business. What you do is incredibly important, and we pay attention.”

Legislators whose staff members participated in TIA Federal Lobby Day included Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md.; Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Rep. Rodney Freylinghuysen, R-N.J.; Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis.; Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.; Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va.; and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.