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House debate on motor-carrier bill centers on tax revenue and whether measure reintroduces regulation
Summary
Representative Greensides presented House Bill 138 to address unpaid tax revenue attributed to troubled motor carriers; he cited an $871,386 1989 figure and said the bill would allow the Public Service Commission to set rates. Representative Fox questioned whether setting rates equates to reregulation and pushed members to study the bill further before voting.
Representative Ronald J. Greensides introduced House Bill 138, a proposed amendment to the Motor Carrier Act, saying the measure is not intended to "reregulate" the Utah motor‑carrier industry but to protect tax revenues the State Tax Commission and Public Service Commission say have been lost when carriers go out of business.
Greensides declared a conflict of interest on the floor, noting the subject is his livelihood and that the Public Service Commission had asked him to sponsor the bill based on a letter from the State Tax Commission. He told members the State of Utah had lost $871,386 in unpaid taxes in 1989, a figure he said the tax commission compiled after three months of research. Greensides traced prior regulatory changes (House Bill 101 era) and described what he called a cycle of "predatory pricing," saying "77% of Utah's motor carriers operate unprofitably" and arguing the bill would permit rate-setting by the Public Service Commission to protect tax revenues while retaining ease of entry into the industry.
Representative Fox pressed Greensides on whether the bill constitutes reregulation, noting that setting rates is a form of regulation and that the House should not take a major policy step without fuller study. Fox questioned whether the tax losses could be conclusively tied to deregulation rather than carriers failing to pay taxes. Greensides replied that he saw a correlation: he said there were 254 carriers in 1985, that 109 of those had gone out of business, and that as of Jan. 1, 1991, there were 439 intrastate carriers — figures he offered to show industry turnover and the tax‑revenue problem.
Fox warned colleagues not to "get in the habit of pushing our green button far too easily" and urged a 'no' vote on House Bill 138 unless the House took additional time to study the policy implications of rate-setting and profit-margin rules the sponsor described.
The transcript records the floor presentation and extended questioning but does not include a recorded vote on House Bill 138 during the session segment provided.
