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April 29, 2005
Off-road vehicle registration bill lacks Guinn's signature
By ELIZABETH WHITE "That's pretty much taken care of that," Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said after hearing in a Senate Finance Committee meeting that Guinn wouldn't sign SB400. Fees collected under SB400 would have gone to both the state General Fund and an off-road fund used to maintain pathways and trails used by the vehicles. Assuming 135,000 such vehicles in the state, the fees - $25 every two years for most off-road vehicles and a $5 one-time fee for a few others - would bring in $3.2 million for the coming fiscal year, said Dennis Colling of the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Because the registration certificates are good for two years, the following fiscal year the state would see a loss of $1.6 million to maintain the program, legislators were told. In following years, revenues wouldn't spike again because the state also won't be collecting as much from separate, one-time inspection fees, added Troy Dillard of the DMV. In later two-year budget cycles the loss to the state would be $459,000. Other potential, and tough to ascertain financial losses could come from a decrease in fuel tax revenue from people who use off-road vehicles instead of cars for short trips, said Kent Cooper of the state Department of Transportation. Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, said Nevada might be the only state in the West that doesn't require off-road vehicles to be registered. Last summer, off-road enthusiasts met with the Legislative Committee on Public Lands and said they wanted to be regulated, he added. "They were willing to pay money to be licensed," Rhoads said. "That's where the bill came from." But Josh Wilson of the Trailblazers Motorcycle Club said there's plenty of money to maintain off-road vehicle pathways without the registration fees. The DMV said an additional 29 staffers - for enforcement, title issuance and inspection - would be needed to administer the off-road fund. Raggio said that the bill wouldn't even come out of the committee if its supporters didn't figure out how to eliminate the negative impact to the state budget. "If we're going to process this measure then I think we need to make sure it is not an expense to the state," he said before hearing that Guinn wouldn't sign the bill anyway. |
