As we head into the Labor Day Holiday Weekend, it only seems
appropriate for the Recreation HQ to give riders an update on the fight to
protect our OHV Trust Fund.
This has been the most intensive 4 month period of time for
me on a professional basis since I started working on land-use issues in
1990. Fighting to protect the OHV Trust
Fund has been one of the toughest state fights combined with an additional host of federal
land use challenges.
I want to borrow a recent quote from Terry McHale who is an
OHV lobbyist in Sacramento (you can see him in action at 1:39:19 in the video
below) where he said, ”Things are better than they were.”
After watching the almost hour long video below where the
legislature debates on how to use the 34M dollars found in the scandal at State
Parks, I agree with Terry that OHV has
become more of a front and center issue.
Never before have I seen a state legislative body discuss in detail the
three funding pots for OHV (e.g.
registration fees, park fees, and off-road fuel tax monies).
It is clear to me that they had been briefed in detail and
were painfully aware of how hot an issue this has become. HQ recommends you watch the entire OHV
portion of the video so you too may understand the import of this debate. You will see the Department of Finance give
circular answers to the elected officials.
Both Democrats and Republicans challenge the Department of Finance to give
accurate accounts of the 34M.
Video (OHV starts at 55:05) of 8/23/12 Budget Committee
Hearing on AB1478
http://vimeo.com/48412668
There are a lot of good quotes in the video but one of the
best was when Senator Simitian stated (1:03:10) that he had “taken a lot of
hell” from users regarding his original plan
to gut the local assistance grants program and cap it at 10M. You will see an effort by him to restore 11M
on top of that 10M cap to make the grants program partially whole again. However, I don’t think we will know if that
happens until the Attorney General completes his investigation later this year.
Thanks to all who worked so very hard on this issue and to
those of you who supported us or sent in
letters, made phone calls, and got your county board of supervisors to weigh in.
The OHV Trust Fund Saga continues…
Posts
The video says it all. For the average rider, this gives you an opportunity to see WHY our OHV monies get stolen.
ReplyDeleteIf ever a time to vote OUT those that choose to harm us, it is NOW. Unless the balance of power in the State, and Federal elections change, we will continue to have an uphill battle, and as you see, the minority party fights back hard, really hard, but alas lose to the Majority when it comes down to the votes. Votes bought and paid for by the Environmental Radicals.........
Dave Pickett