A decision support system for motor vehicle taxation evaluation

The authors developed a decision support system for evaluating motor vehicle taxation legislation in the state of Idaho. The system allows users to evaluate the impact of changes in fixed vehicle registration fees and weight-distance taxes on state revenue collections and trucking industry costs. Use of the DSS in 1987 and again in 1989/90 allowed interested government and industry groups to predict the effects of particular legislative proposals, which were discovered to have very serious economic ramifications. Partially because of information provided by the system, the state of Idaho avoided what could have been a multi-million dollar adverse economic impact due to proposed legislation affecting the structure of motor vehicle taxation.