Number of commercial trucks registered in Oklahoma has dropped

<br>(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The number of commercial long-haul trucks registered in Oklahoma has dropped by more than 70,000 in the past year. <br><br>The changes came as the Oklahoma Tax Commission adopted

Monday, October 13th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The number of commercial long-haul trucks registered in Oklahoma has dropped by more than 70,000 in the past year.

The changes came as the Oklahoma Tax Commission adopted tough new registration rules in response to a bribery and fraud scandal.

The new rules are designed to remove out-of-state truckers who have been registering their trucks in Oklahoma to obtain cheap tags and, in some cases, avoid sales and property taxes in their home states.

Under the new rules, the number of commercial trucks registered in Oklahoma dropped from more than 260-thousand last year to about 190-thousand this year.

Tax Commission attorney Marjorie Welch says in theory the registration drop shouldn't cost the state money.

Oklahoma belongs to a compact in which a trucker pays a registration fee in one state, but the money is divvied up among states based on the number of miles the trucker expects to travel in each state and each state's fee structure.