tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-853780194331041713.post1996478858290249349..comments2023-10-21T02:16:31.691-07:00Comments on The General's Recreation HQ: COMMENTARY ON PEER'S EFFORT TO DEFUND CA OHV PROGRAMDon Amadorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13045787382896008473noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-853780194331041713.post-34524904941416697812009-07-10T11:41:26.247-07:002009-07-10T11:41:26.247-07:00Interesting post, Don. I followed one of the links...Interesting post, Don. I followed one of the links in the PEER press release to a table of how they say gasoline is being consumed for recreation. Top line of chart shows:<br /><br />Driving for recreation, street licensed: 60,872,723 gallons of gas<br />Driving for recreation, non-street licensed: 21,238,911 gallons of gas<br /><br />Combined, these numbers make up 54.4% of the gasoline consumed (presumably as identified for recreation of some sort). Then the chart breaks out a bunch of other uses, none of which are characterized as OHV recreation. Therefore, it seems obvious that the "Driving for recreation, non-street licensed" category is where OHV gasoline consumption is captured in this chart. Rounding foir convenience sake, that means 54% of the gas tax revenues come from gas consumed in the pursuit of driving for recreation, and one third of that 54% (18% of the total) comes from gas consumed by non-street licensed vehicles driven for recreation.<br /><br />But PEER's documents don't show the whole story.<br /><br />They have broken out non-street licensed use IN PURSUIT OF other recreation, and then don't include that as part of the OHV gas consumed (and tax revenue that ensues). So in other words, if you use your OHV to take you ON OHV TRAILS to go camping and star-gazing, peer is arguing that your OHV use and the ensuing gas tax revenue) should go instead toward street-licensed use funding. They are characterizing ONLY recreational OHV use as deserving of the gas tax revenues from OHV use. Rolling that non-street licensed (OHV) gas consumption yields 20.1% of recreation gas tax revenue attributable to OHV consumption. If you use your OHV as transportation in pursuit of other recreation, PEER argues that that gas consumed (and the tax revenue ensuing) should not be associated with OHV use. <br /><br />In addition, PEER's documents don't show total gas tax revenues to the state, they don't break out the total amount attributed to recreation purposes, and then show what of that amount should be attributed to OHV recreation. And most importantly, they do not show the total amounts that should be in the OHV fund coffers compared to what's actually in there after multiple budget raids over the years.Father O'KChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15385682030400543841noreply@blogger.com