MADISON, Wis. Vehicle registration fees, including those for over-the-road buses, are going up more than 30 percent in Wisconsin effective Jan. 1.

The increases, included in legislation that ended a deadlock over a budget for the state, were adopted by the state legislature and signed into law last month by Gov. Jim Doyle.

Adoption of a state budget had been delayed for months because of wrangling over various tax proposals Gov. Doyle had offered up. Among his ideas that were shot down by the legislature were an oil company franchise fee (a fuel tax that would have been imposed at the wholesale level; see March 1 Bus & Motorcoach News); no combined reporting for corporate income tax; no fuel tax increase, and no diversions from the state transportation fund.

A very expensive health-care proposal for the state also was shot down.

In the place of these proposals, Wisconsinites got a huge increase in vehicle registration fees across the board. Here are examples; the fee for:

A 38,000-pound motorcoach goes from $593 to $772.

A 44,000-pound motorcoach goes from $708 to $921.

An 80,000-pound tractor-trailer combination goes from $1,987 to $2,560.

Autos and light trucks go from $55 to $75.

Tom Howells, president, of the Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association, which manages the Wisconsin Motor Coach Association, said his organization and its members were none to happy about the increase.

The budget package also included enabling legislation that will allow Wisconsin to participate in the Unified Carrier Registration Agreement, effective for 2007.

For more information, contact Howells at (608) 833-6800 or thowells@witruck.org.