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A letter from Mike Noel

anderson750

anderson750

I'm working on it Rose
Location
Price, Utah
I don't know all the details of the entire bill, but let me play devils advocate here. Up on the hill there may not be enough suppoort for the bill to pass it in a form where it is written to include full size OHV's. But the support is there to pass a compromise that includes smaller OHV's. Would it not make sense to get an initial bill passed on street legal OHV's then go to work on getting them included in the future? Or is it better to not have the bill at all?
 
S

scoutabout

None
anderson750 said:
I don't know all the details of the entire bill, but let me play devils advocate here. Up on the hill there may not be enough suppoort for the bill to pass it in a form where it is written to include full size OHV's. But the support is there to pass a compromise that includes smaller OHV's. Would it not make sense to get an initial bill passed on street legal OHV's then go to work on getting them included in the future? Or is it better to not have the bill at all?
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The initial bill to allow ATV's to be street legal was passed last year. These are amendments to the previous law. These amendments change the new laws to exclude 4x4 buggies and larger OHV's.

To answer the hypothetical, I'd say no. Many espouse the virtue of "united" motorized recreation. Why exclude 4x4 users for the benefit of ATV and 2-wheel users? That's an ongoing question as it occurs too frequently. As stated in another thread, 4x4 users are the only real multiple use advocates. ATV and 2-wheel groups fight for exclusive use trails, 4x4 users fight for multi-use trails.
 
utahmike

utahmike

Lobbyist \ Consultant
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
Just wanted to let people know that I was on the hill Friday. I spent about 70% of my time working on this bill. I had numerous discussions with both sponsors of the bill. We certainly supported the bill last year despite a few imperfections and potential problems. WE ABSOLUTELY do not support the removal of type II ATV's from "Street legal ATV registrations" As the ammendments propose. We made some progress on getting some changes made. I will address those changes and ask for input from all of you in a seperate post.

On Friday afternoon we testified on the bill and while we did not attempt to stop the bill from passing committee we raised our concerns and got a commitment out of both sponsors to make changes per our suggestions. I was a little bummed to find that I was the only one who testified on the bill. Given some of the web chatter I had hoped \ expected to see a few more people or groups there. It's tough for most getting work off on Friday afternoon off. It's a good thing USA-ALL is able to be there...thats why all of you pay us the big bucks ;) !

We found out somewhat by chance about this bill. It flew through the senate in record speed. Thankfully we have it in our sights now and we will stay locked on. This bill is greased, meaning it can really move due to the political status of the sponsors, we have to engage in pretty serious work to change things. We will need the support of all of you to help us protect equality of application of street legal ATV's.
 
S

scoutabout

None
utahmike said:
I was a little bummed to find that I was the only one who testified on the bill. Given some of the web chatter I had hoped \ expected to see a few more people or groups there.
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It would have been a great move for USA-ALL to let everyone know about an upcoming opportunity to speak to the committee regarding this issue. I hope that when there are future instances where users and activists are openly invited to speak before these committees that USA-ALL will give everyone a heads up.

utahmike said:
We will need the support of all of you to help us protect equality of application of street legal ATV's.
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Here's a great chance for the community to be united! How can we get the ATV, 2x1 and snowmobile communities involved? I'm looking forward to seeing opposition to this bill addressed in upcoming USA-ALL newsletters, on the USA-ALL "Legislative Watch" blog, and motoutah.
 
utahmike

utahmike

Lobbyist \ Consultant
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
In all honesty the speed at which this bill moved SHOCKED us. We were a little slow on the uptake with this one. We found out the morning of the committee meeting (even though the notice was given the afternoon before) and in trying to get up to speed didn't have time to raise the alarm...further more, we had to handle this bill somewhat carefully, for reasons I won't expound on here. However there were a number of folks aware of the committee meeting, and I had hoped they would come and express concern. A large outcry by the community would help USA-ALL in negotiating changes. Also for what its worth, we have begged people to come testify before, and the ONLY time I can recall anyone coming is when we brought 2 people and coached them on the issue. We still will continue to let people know in the future about these opportunities. But past participation in such meetings even with ample notice and offers of help from us have largely gone unanswered. :-\
 
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