|
"Snowmobile fees are tough, but right choice" was the headline given to the appended Op-Ed by a Maine newspaper. Twenty-five years ago, the recreation industry, acting in response to challenges they saw looming for the continued growth in motorized recreation equipment sales and associated tourism revenues, came to much the same conclusion. Twenty-five years ago, the motorized recreation and the travel-tourism industries, with the blessing and full cooperation of the Reagan Administration, undertook the serious transformation of soul-comforting, nature-based re-creation into adrenaline pumping, pay-to-play outdoor wreckreation. For them, it wasn't a tough choice at all. It was a rational and strategic business decision and it was not something they attempted to hide. To the contrary, they worked diligently to sell the pay-to-play idea to outdoor enthusiasts. They are still doing so to this very day.
I wish I could share the appended Op-Ed with only my environmental friends. I wish snowmobilers, dirtbikers, ATVers and jetskiers never got to read this Op-Ed or my introduction. This Op-Ed got it right — right, that is, if privatization, commercialization and motorization of recreational opportunities in nature is your desired objective.
You might ask, "Why, then, are you sharing this?" To which I'd respond, "Because it is the truth."
This is what pay-to-play is all about.
Is it right for you?
Scott
"When people who are honestly mistaken learn the truth, they will either cease being mistaken, or cease being honest."
(- source of quote unknown)
--- begin quoted ---
Snowmobile fees are tough, but right choice
{MAINE} Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 01/16/2008
It's hard to imagine that an abundance of snow would be a problem for
the state's snowmobilers. But after years of too-little snow, it turns
out this winter's surfeit of snow has conspired with high fuel prices
to make one big and expensive headache for the industry.
That's because snowmobile clubs are largely responsible for grooming
trails across the state. And to groom a trail, you need special
equipment and, most importantly, the fuel to power that equipment. As
fuel costs have skyrocketed, so have the costs to groom trails. The
state normally funnels a percentage of snowmobile registration fees to
the clubs to cover grooming costs, but this year, so much snow has
fallen that grooming budgets are nearing empty already.
What to do? Well, one option would be to declare gas-guzzling outdoor
sports obsolete in the age of expensive fuel and sign up all the
snowmobile aficionados for Nordic ski lessons. That's the
cold-day-in-purgatory option, rendered highly unlikely by the fact that
snowmobiling brings a lot of free-spending tourists to the state during
the winter.
Instead, the industry has taken a different tack: Get more money from
the state. Officials in the Department of Conservation know a powerful
constituency when they see one and have proposed that the Legislature
increase registration fees for both in-state and out-of-state
snowmobile owners. The two-tiered system would extract higher payments
out of those who are not members of snowmobile clubs. In other words,
the state will set fees that will drive snowmobilers to join clubs,
thereby increasing club revenue which will, in turn, pay for trail
maintenance, as would any excess funds from the state's license
collection.
You could look at this solution one of two ways. There's the nice way,
which is that the current situation represents a great public-private
partnership that keeps an important recreational industry going in
Maine. Without the hundreds of club volunteers helping keep trails
open, snowmobiling in Maine wouldn't thrive and we'd lose a lot of
tourists during the winter -- so the Legislature should hike fees and
give the clubs the money for gas.
And then there's the hardheaded way, which would be to ask whether this
kind of deal is one that deserves support. If it does, what about all
the other industries in Maine -- should we be hiking license fees to
support nonprofit auto insurance clubs like AAA? There could be a long
line of supplicants just behind the snowmobile club members.
And while some snowmobilers are already whining that any fee hike will
hurt them, we're not convinced that folks who spend thousands on their
hobby can legitimately complain about high license fees. Remember, this
is a recreational activity, not an essential one.
Maine has little choice in this situation. In an era of budget cutting,
the volunteer labor supplied by snowmobile club members who groom
trails represents a huge donation in time that the state would be hard
pressed to pay for. It may be a deal the Legislature makes with its
collective back up against the wall, but all things considered, it's a
pretty good deal. Hike the fees.
|
- Activism 
