Joliet council says fees on trucks not answer to budget deficit

• Reprints

Larry Hug

Updated: November 2, 2011 12:48AM

JOLIET — The idea of putting a city fee on cargo containers shipped through CenterPoint Intermodal Center-Joliet was put on the shelf Monday.

The proposal from District 1 Councilman Larry Hug was powerful enough to draw several shipping and trucking industry representatives to a workshop meeting of the Joliet City Council, where the idea of a $50 fee was considered.

They told the council that such a fee would chase business away from the new intermodal center. The city’s own attorney said a container-only fee faced dubious legal prospects.

In the end, the council opted to look instead toward a new port district authority that could be authorized in Springfield as a means to assure that the CenterPoint operation generates public funds needed to keep roads in good shape.

“I’m suggesting a $50 fee to support the community that hosts this project,” Hug said as he led off what turned into a two-hour discussion on the proposal.

He added that the fee would help erase a 2012 Joliet budget deficit that has been projected at $27 million.

One trucking industry representative said truckers should not be put into the position of paying for the city’s deficit.

“The money’s going to be used to offset the city’s deficit, which really doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on at the intermodal facility,” said Don Schaefer, executive vice president of the Mid-West Truckers Association. “The trucking industry’s concern really isn’t how the city of Joliet is going to balance its budget.”

Schaefer was among several trucking and shipping industry representatives who said the fee would drive companies away from the CenterPoint facility, which is anchored by a Union Pacific intermodal yard where containers are transferred between trains and trucks.

Joliet City Manager Thomas Thanas, who also opposed the proposed fee, said the idea received attention in industry trade publications.

Thanas suggested the council defer the issue while work continues on a proposed port district authority that would create fees to pay for infrastructure damage and other public expenses related to trucks coming out of the CenterPoint facility.

The council agreed with Thanas’ suggestion — except for Hug, who voted present on a motion that put his suggestion on indefinite hold.

Joliet City Attorney Jeff Plyman said a fee placed on containers only would likely be thrown out in the courts because of international treaties, constitutional protection for interstate commerce and federal regulations protecting railroads.

Plyman said the city’s only chance would be to create a tax that would not target containers only. He suggested a sales tax on lease transactions, which would apply to leased cargo containers but would have to also apply to almost everything else leased in the city as well.

Chicago has a lease tax, he said.

“They tax leases across the board,” he said. “That’s how Chicago gets at it.”

The council showed no enthusiasm for the idea of a new city lease tax. Opponents to the idea included Russ Slinkard, chief executive of the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce, who said a lease tax “would certainly harm our reputation as a good place to do business.”