Committee removes interest requirement for mileage-based user fee from H.944 draft

On April 16 the Senate Transportation committee agreed to remove, for now, a proposed interest-accrual requirement on unpaid mileage-based user fees in H.944 (draft 4.1).

Damian Leonard (Legislative Council) presented three options for interest on unpaid fees: remove the interest requirement entirely; have interest accrue from the date the fee is due (renewal or termination); or allow a 90-day grace period after which interest would begin. Leonard framed the choice as both a policy and implementation question for a new program.

Patrick Murphy of the Agency of Transportation said the core objective is collecting reliable mileage data. "The thinking behind this was just that it's what we really need is the mileage data," Murphy said, explaining that a 90-day allowance was intended to align with committee discussion and to give people time to complete inspections or renewals without creating overpayments.

Several members expressed sympathy for not penalizing early adopters of a new system. A member said they personally favored not charging interest while the program matures; the committee signaled consensus to delete the interest section and to revisit the approach after the agency has had time to gather implementation information.

The committee instructed staff to remove the section from the draft; members said they expect to review collected implementation data and reports before deciding whether to reintroduce interest or a grace period in future drafts.