The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Nov. 18 followed in the footsteps of the Port of Los Angeles and voted unanimously to officially repeal a cargo fee that has been on the books since 2008 but had never been collected after numerous delays.
The “infrastructure cargo fee” which would have varied from $6 to $18 per 20-foot equivalent container unit, would have been assessed on all loaded containers entering and leaving the port by truck or rail. There would have been a charge on each cargo container to help fund roadway and railway improvements in and around the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
Long Beach’s repeal follows a similar revocation by the LA port commission in September.
The fee was expected to begin in 2009 and raise $1.4 billion in order to secure matching state transportation funds for the design and construction of 17 specific highway and rail construction projects throughout the harbor district.
Although the fee was never implemented due to a downturn in the global economy, both ports have moved forward with its efforts to modernize and make capital improvements using other revenue sources.
