Committee hears case to expand logging vehicle tax breaks as bill pared to 50%

Representative Jed Lipsky, who described himself as both a legislator and a longtime logger, told the House Transportation Committee on April 24 that a bill to reduce taxes on logging transportation equipment was intended to sustain Vermont’s timber industry.

"This bill, came up because quite frankly, the forest industry and the timber harvesting industry and affordability, like many businesses or professions are under a lot of stresses this time in history," Representative Jed Lipsky said, speaking about economic and equipment-cost pressures facing loggers.

The bill under discussion, Senate Bill 46 (S.46) with a House companion originally drafted as H.85, began as proposals for both a purchase-and-use tax exemption on logging trucks and trailers and a sales-and-use tax exemption on repair parts. Witnesses told the committee the version that passed the Senate was narrowed: it would provide a 50% reduction of the purchase-and-use tax for vehicles over 10,000 pounds but does not include a sales-and-use exemption for parts in the current text.

"The bill before you today is the number 1 priority of our organization," Dana Duran, executive director of…