As one item within a much larger budget plan, the Assembly is rejecting trailer bill language that would delay implementation of a new smog check program for big rigs.
Republican Sen. Brian Dahle, who runs a seed and trucking business in Lassen County, pushed back last year on the measure establishing the program, Senate Bill 210. He called it a bigger problem for small trucking companies and “for somebody like myself, who has never been able to afford a brand new truck.”
“It's going to be a hardship on the people trying to make a living on top of all of the other regulations that have been piled on top of us,” he said in a 2019 committee hearing. “It's going to drive the cost of freight up in California.”
The Assembly budget includes nearly $2 million for implementing the program along with a related project.
