With Rhode Island set to resume collecting its truck tolls in 2026, in-state trucking groups are asking lawmakers to end what they are calling a “flawed and reckless scheme.”
Earlier this month, the state’s House Finance Committee approved a $14.33 billion budget proposal for the 2025-2026 fiscal year that includes an estimated $10 million in revenue generated by the truck tolling program.
Those tolls had been put on hold since September 2022, when a U.S. District Court in Rhode Island ruled that the state’s truck tolling plan violated the dormant commerce clause – which prohibits states from imposing charges with the intent to discriminate in favor of domestic, and against out-of-state or interstate, entities.
In December 2024, following an over two-year legal battle, the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state. In its ruling, the court determined Rhode Island could resume its tolling program, minus the daily caps placed on the tolls collected, as this disproportionately benefitted local trucking companies.
While the state applauded the court’s ruling regarding truck tolls, the Rhode Island Trucking Association did not share in its excitement over the legal victory.
In May, the tucking group sent a letter to Gov. Dan McKee and members of the state’s General Assembly urging legislators to oppose reinstating the tolls minus the daily caps. With the approval of the 2026 budget, it was clear those cries had fallen on deaf ears.
In a recent op-ed published in The Providence Journal, Rhode Island Trucking Association President Chris Maxwell reiterated that an uncapped toll program would result in roughly 94% of the tolls collected coming from local businesses.
“In a state that relies upon trucks to deliver 88% of everything that we live on, this is not good,” Maxwell said. “It is a tax on the ‘Average Dan.’”
Maxwell said the daily caps were a “covenant made with the local business community” by the state’s General Assembly to ensure passage of the tolling program. He said that turning the tolls back on without a daily cap “would defy a promise made.”
Maxwell also noted another flaw with the state’s plan to resume tolling commercial vehicles – namely, the fact that the state no longer requires the revenue generated by the tolls to fund infrastructure repairs.
In 2016, when the tolls were originally proposed, the state intended to use the revenue generated to fund repairs to bridges across Rhode Island. At that time, the state’s General Assembly concluded that 23% of Rhode Island’s bridges were structurally deficient, and it attributed more than 70% of annual damage to the state’s transportation infrastructure to tractor-trailers.
However, Maxwell said the Rhode Island Department of Transportation has remedied many of those concerns over the past eight years, spending $4.8 billion on infrastructure improvements. Additionally, Rhode Island received $251 million in federal funding in May to assist in restoring the state’s bridges.
Maxwell added that despite the state’s victory with the appeals court, lawmakers could still intervene when it comes to resuming the truck-only tolls. He noted the matter is “far from settled and will continue to play out in legal and regulatory arenas.”
“The time has come for the governor to act for the greater good of Rhode Island,” Maxwell said. “This mess was not his making. If he chooses to reinstate tolls through his budget, it is well within the power and means of the legislature to intercede and, once and for all, nail the coffin shut on this flawed and reckless scheme.”
As for now, the state is expected to resume collecting truck tolls in the first half of 2026. LL
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