Alabama truckers sue over crackdown on Oklahoma tags

<br>MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) _ The Alabama Trucking Association is suing the state tax agency to stop its crackdown on Alabama-based trucks that have registered in Oklahoma. <br><br>The suit, filed in U.S.

Wednesday, September 18th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) _ The Alabama Trucking Association is suing the state tax agency to stop its crackdown on Alabama-based trucks that have registered in Oklahoma.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks an injunction to stop the department's ticketing program.

Carla Snellgrove, spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Revenue, said Tuesday, ``We are going to continue our enforcement effort and continue to write tickets.''

In early August, enforcement officers from the Alabama Department of Revenue started handing out tickets to Alabama-based trucks with Oklahoma tags. The department accused them of obtaining improper registrations from Oklahoma, where the property and sales taxes are cheaper.

Trucking companies maintained that at the time they got the registration, Oklahoma permitted trucking companies to register their fleets through agents in the state. Oklahoma has now changed its policy, but trucking companies say they ought to be able to use their one-year registrations until they expire because they were legal when they were purchased.

``The truckers involved in this case were simply following the guidelines as they were written at the time,'' said Jim Sizemore, attorney for the Alabama Trucking Association.

Alabama revenue officials want the truckers to switch to Alabama registrations now. They point to an Oklahoma grand jury investigation of the agent system that has resulted in felony indictments against three agents and four workers from the Oklahoma Tax Commission.

Figures were not available Tuesday on how many truck tickets have been issued in Alabama. State revenue officials say Alabama's truck registrations declined by 3,000 while Oklahoma was allowing trucking companies to register their vehicles through agents in the state.