ATV Trail Fund Established in New York
- Budget enacted April 12, 2005 including ATV provisions
- 2005 funding of $2.5M stripped of the new Trail Fund into the State’s General Fund
- $850,000 appropriated to DEC for a Trail Program from the General Fund
- Point-of-Sale ATV registration now required
Updated April 28, 2005 (Orig. 4/1/05)
ALBANY — For 12 long years, NYSORVA volunteers, affiliated groups, and state legislators fought for the re-establishment of a registration-based Trail Fund to support the development and maintenance of trails for all terrain vehicles and off-highway motorcycles. Finally their efforts have resulted in one key success, but much work remains to be done.
At 9pm April 12, 2005, Governor Pataki signed the various State Budget bills into Law with only four line-item vetoes, three hours short of the time when the State Budget would have become Law without his signature, in an act that signaled his approval of the outcome of the first “on time” budget processes in the state in 21 years. The State Budget is known as Chapter 50 of 2005 of the Laws of New York State
The 2005-2006 Enacted State Budget includes the following measures affecting ATVs:
This battle for re-establishing the dedicated Trail Fund abolished in 1990 is over, but the war is not won. Most of the detail issues for implementation of the Program, which will utilize and distribute $850k appropriation and monies from the Fund in out-years (2006+), were purposefully excluded from the Budget leaving many issues up in the air and contingent upon a different bill yet to be written and passed. So the lobbying effort is not over by a long shot.
See the printer-friendly version of the NYSORVA Trail Program Position & Talking Points. This is formatted for provision to your State Senator and Assembly Member.
The now-enacted (4/12/05) budget bill S.3669/A.6843 includes in Part D a fee increase from $10 to $25 (effective July 11, 2005), and dedication of the increase to a Fund set apart for an ATV Program. Point-of-sale registration also included in the original bill is now the Law effective April 1, 2005.
All anticipated revenue to the Trail Fund will be stripping during the 2005-6 fiscal year, into the state’s General Fund leaving nothing directly from registration funds to start an ATV Trail Program. This is done with a $2.5M line item in the Budget out of the Trail Fund established under Finance Law 92-o. (We do not have the text showing the appropriation out of the Trail Fund to the General Fund. This is purportedly done within a “Transfer Section” which is not commonly in the public view. We will continue to work to obtain the relevant text from the Legislature for you in the coming days.)
However, in a great triumph of our political will and lobbying efforts, enacted budget bill A.7296-A/S.4270-A restored $850,000 of the $2.5M sweep by special appropriation directly from the General Fund to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s budget, with the specification that it must be set aside by DEC for use only in an ATV Program. The rub is that the Program has yet to be created by a future act of Legislation. That is why our lobbying effort does not end but is only getting started— we must make sure that the program is given the appropriate tools to get the job done for the riders of New York.
Therefore, it is imperative that we all get in touch with our Senators and Assembly Members to demand that the subsequent legislation required by the State Budget to establish the DEC ATV Program contain the following provisions:
With the creation of the Trail Fund, and now the special first-year funding of a to-be-developed DEC ATV Program, the ATV community has scored an important win in being recognized as a legitimate recreational group that deserves the tools it needs to succeed in its goals. But it is our job to make sure that this results in more than just a recognition of our ability to fund state government with ATV taxes, but results in the functional ATV PROGRAM that we need in place to distribute our funds for trail development, to secure General Liability Insurance for clubs and host landowners, to enhance enforcement, and to work cooperatively with our organizations and municipalities to promote related programs such as safety education.
Help remains available at www.nysorva.org/legislation/ to aid you in obtaining the contact information for your elected officials. Tell them to make sure the newly-restored Trail Fund has not been established in vain, nor should it become a repeat of the 1990 Trail Fund rip-off: Get a TRAIL PROGRAM established NOW!
Thank you all for your efforts over these many years toward our common goals.
Team NYSORVA