Thursday, October 25, 2007
The California Legislature just raised the price of boat ownership for California boaters.
posted by John Donaldson
The legislature recently passed a law the Guvenator signed on Oct 14, 2007, that could take approximately $5 million out of the pockets of California members of the PWC Nation over the next eight years. And it might take as much as $70 million from other recreational boaters. I am basing these figures on my own calculations since I couldn’t find any data from the legislature.
OK so for me, every 2 years I cough up an extra $10 that will improve boating safety and boating facilities in Cal., and heck, maybe put a couple more cops on the water to help maintain order. NOT! This new law is an absolutely crystal clear example of a legislature using and abusing their powers to tax people to pay for pet projects while calling it a “fee”.
Here is the real problem with this new law; the money is not doing a single thing to improve boating despite targeting boaters specifically to pay $75 million. Here is the list of worthy projects where the money will be spent according to the bill. http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset2text.htm
1) Alternative fuel and vehicle technology research, development, demonstration, and deployment.
2) Research to evaluate the air quality impacts of alternative fuels
3) Implement the act in a manner to ensure the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures and income levels.
4) Provide funding consistent with other state goals and requirements.
5) Commence voluntary retirement of passenger vehicles and light-duty and medium trucks that are high polluters.
6) Evaluation of the full fuel-cycle of fuels including production, extraction, transport and storage.
7) Vehicle technology means any vehicle, boat, off-road equipment, or locomotive or components like engines, propulsion system, transmission or construction materials.
All this to be administered by a commission and a state board which will have an obligatory advisory board.
The details of the new law fill 12 pages with fairly small type. Who knew it would take 12 pages to describe how boat owners’ money will be spread throughout a bold new bureaucracy?
It is my opinion that despite the quantity of money involved, $75 million from boaters alone, and this money will disappear like rain drops in the desert. I can already hear the clamor of Legislators’ favorite consultants launching into a frenzy to get a cut of the funds. Plus, of course, the salaries for Commission and state board members and their staff, some of whom will doubtlessly be former legislators and former legislative staff.
Your AWA sent their appeal for rationality to the California Assembly but with little or no avail. I realize that like me, you probably accept that the extra $10 over two years is nothing. But this so called fee extracted from boaters is being used to fund projects for which the legislature could not find other funding. So they look at boaters and decide that these folks won’t be organized enough if they get stuck with another fee, no matter how unrelated to their sport its use might be
I have long since learned that one should not stand between a legislator and the public’s money, it is how a person could get crushed. A widely read political columnist has a way of describing the essence of this new law in more direct terms: “Being elected to Congress [or a state legislature] is regarded as being sent on a looting raid for one’s friends.” George Will
There is at least one important way to fight this sort of assault on recreational boating. That is to help the AWA grow and individually be ready to help the AWA respond to these patently unfair and egregious acts by the very people we have elected to represent our interests.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
PWC Nation descends on Arizona
posted by John Donaldson
The mere mention of Lake Havasu resonates with a level of mystique for many members of the PWC Nation. When someone says “Havasu,” perhaps you are one of those who imagine the roar of 20 PWC race engines blasting off the starting line, or can just about get a whiff of race gas. Or you can hear the conversations in French or with heavy British or Australian accents, or marvel at the team attire of the various privateer race teams from Thailand or Serbia or Japan. Indeed, the spectacle of the IJSBA World Finals.
In all my years in the PWC nation, I find the annual Fall World Finals (WF) in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., to be unique and just plain fun. There is virtually nowhere else you can go where everyone you encounter will have a smile on their face when you explain why you are in town. The thousands of visitors who descend on this small city are generally welcomed wholeheartedly by the locals and by the local businesses. It is a great feeling to be there and to feel like everyone accepts you and your particular form of recreation.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Ballast water, Boxer and Baloney
posted by John Donaldson
Let’s kick off my first ever blogging experience with a writing device, an alliteration. You probably didn’t expect to be reading on the AWA web site and get writing composition lessons.
Oh, and yes, I had to look up both the meaning AND spelling of alliteration. But enough about me.
Ballast water, Boxer and baloney. A good one, right? Well these 3 B’s are all about Washington, D.C., one of the easiest targets in the world to pick on. Yet if we look away from D.C. for just a minute, the folks there might change that baloney into a knife and do very bad things to folks outside of D.C.
Ballast water: You may have seen the ballast water stories elsewhere on this site or in RIDE or other boating publications. The short version is that it is very possible that every recreational boat owner in the country could be required to get a permit – in addition to state registration – to operate their boat. And you have to know that permits mean $$. From here on it gets a bit technical.
Boxer: One of the proposed ways to fix this ballast water issue is to pass a federal law that exempts recreational boaters from the requirement of obtaining a permit.
“Both [Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chair of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)] spoke out strongly against the notion of permits for boaters and announced they will work together to fix the issue this year with legislation passed in Congress to protect the recreational boating industry and boaters across the country.”
At least according to the National Marine Manufacturer’s Association in its Oct. 5 newsletter.
Baloney: Of course this all leads us to the final part of the alliteration. Almost everything one hears from Washington is really about baloney, something whose contents are a mystery. Boaters would absolutely love to take Senator Boxer at her word, but after all, it’s Washington, and it’s politics.
Elsewhere either on this site or in Ride PWC magazine you will have exhortations to contact your elected representatives in Washington to have them join this fight for a fix on the ballast water issue. Sounds like a good idea to me.
