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Do own a boat?
Several boats, perhaps?
How about a toy boat?
My wife, son and I own a motorized dingy. We pay a registration fee for this boat, though there are years when it never sees the water. We're OK with that. We purchased this boat knowing it would need to be registered.
We also own three kayaks, an inflatable canoe and a small raft like the one picture here. These boats were cheap to purchase and none of them requires payment of a registration fee. That may soon change and I have a real problem with that!
Imagine having to pay an annual registration fee on that inflatable you purchased for the kids or on the old canoe you keep behind the garage in case friends come visiting.
Appended is an article about efforts to require the registration of non-motorized boats in Idaho, one of several states now considering similar fees.
Scott
---begin quoted---
Nonmotorized boat fee debate continues
BY ROGER PHILLIPS - 06/17/08
Boaters who use canoes, kayaks, drift boats and other nonmotorized
craft could know in July if a fee will be proposed in next year's
Legislature.
Gov. Butch Otter reconvened on Monday a group that is working to
"develop a fair and equitable approach to funding the state's boating
program." But the basic decision the group appears to be facing is
whether to implement registration fees for nonmotorized boats.
Motorized boats and sailboats already pay registration fees and gas
taxes, and their annual fee was raised Jan. 1 from a base of $13 to $20
for boats up to 12 feet, and $2 per foot over that.
It's unlikely the Legislature would pass back-to-back fee increases for
motorized boat owners. "I suppose we'd take a look, but I'd have to
have a real strong reason," said Sen. Lee Heinrich, R-Cascade.
Otter's special assistant, John Chatburn, is chairing the working
group, which met on Monday in Boise. The group met for the first time
last fall.
Chatburn asked members of the committee, which includes representatives
from motorized and nonmotorized boating groups, as well as law
enforcement, counties, outfitters and guides, legislators and other
state agencies, to talk to their constituents and identify needs, such
as facilities and maintenance, education and safety patrols. Then he
asked them to estimate costs and determine how they should be funded.
The group plans to meet again in July, which will allow the governor's
office time to review any proposals that include a fee increase that
could affect the state's budget.
Any proposals to create a new fee would have to go through the Idaho Legislature.
But Chatburn said the purpose of the July meeting is to discuss the
group's findings, then figure out how to address them. "I think it's
way premature to be talking about the rest of it until you get that
information," he said.
Otter said in the past boater fees were inequitable. He didn't sign the
fee increase for motor boats passed by the Legislature in 2007 but also
didn't veto it.
There have been four attempts since the 1990s to get a nonmotorized
boating registration fee through the Legislature. The last unsuccessful
attempt happened in 2004.
Motor boat registration fees cover about 35 percent of the state's $4.6
million annual boating program, which includes enforcement, maintenance
and upkeep of boat ramps and other facilities, education, search and
rescue, and other programs. Most of the money for the state's boating
programs comes from federal sources.
Nonmotorized boaters do not pay a state registration fee, although they
pay user fees on many rivers in Idaho as well as excise taxes on their
equipment.
Idaho Parks and Recreation officials estimated about 90 percent of the
state's boating funds originate from motorized sources, such as fuel
taxes. But members of the working group questioned that ratio and said
it credited too much money to motorized users.
"I'm not comfortable with it," said Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d'Alene.
Tom Briggs, marine deputy for the Ada County Sheriff's Office, said
more money is needed for search and rescue and patrols, but
representatives of user groups disagreed.
"I challenge you to show me the cost of search and rescue for
nonmotorized boaters," said Howard Miller of the Idaho Whitewater
Association, which is a group that represents rafters and kayakers.
Pam Smolcynski of Trout Unlimited also questioned the benefit nonmotorized users would receive for the additional fee.
Miller argued nonmotorized boaters already pay an equitable share, and
a person launching a canoe requires less services than a person
launching a motor boat from a trailer.
"We're a different crowd," Miller said. "We don't need concrete boat ramps."
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