Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 2, 1993 TAG: 9302020013
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SPORTSMEN COULD REALLY USE PASSAGE OF BOATING BILL
When you purchase a boat, you pay a two percent titling tax. You'd think that money would flow into boating programs, such as boat law enforcement, boating safety and the building and maintenance of boat ramps. But it doesn't.It goes into the general fund. It is spent for worthy causes, but not for boating.
That means Virginia's boating programs must receive supplementary funds to meet legal responsibilities and public demands. And those funds don't come from the general fund. They are taken from hunting and fishing license fees at the rate of about $2.6 million a year.
So the guy driving the fancy cruiser down the lake isn't paying his way. His sport is being supplemented by people who hunt and fish, people who have the right to expect that their funds be spent on their recreation.
Sure, it isn't right. So hunters, fishermen, boaters - everybody - should be delighted with a bill introduced in the General Assembly that would reroute the boat titling tax from the general fund to the motorboat and water safety fund, which is administrated by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
That would mean the boat titling tax would go to boating, just as the automobile titling tax goes to transportation and the airplane titling tax goes to aviation.
The latest figures available show that income from boat titling in 1990-91 totaled $2.3 million. So the source would go a long way toward wiping out that $2.6 million shortfall. It would help put boating back into the black, and it would mean there would be a couple of million dollars returning to hunting and fishing programs, which are starved for funds.
The bill, SB 815, was introduced by Sen. Stanley C. Walker of Norfolk. It's approval is far from a shoo-in. Competition for general fund money is fierce. The bill isn't part of the governor's legislative package. In fact, board members of the game and fish department had to work hard to find a sponsor. Even old friends in the General Assembly turned them down.
So board members are asking outdoor clubs and sportsmen to support the effort. Quick to respond has been the Virginia Wildlife Federation and the Virginia State BASS Federation.
The bill has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee. Area senators on the committee include Virgil H. Goode Jr. of Rocky Mount, Madison E. Marye of Shawsville and Elliot S. Schewel of Lynchburg.
The board earlier had hoped to have another major piece of legislation in the General Assembly, one that would have rerouted 30 percent of the state sales tax on outdoor equipment from the general fund to the game and fish department. But there is so much competition for general fund money that it gave up on that effort, which would have brought an estimated $8.3 million into its budget.
The board has stated that the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries needs $10 million annually just to prevent further degradation of its facilities and reductions of its natural resource programs. It looks with envy at states such as Missouri, which gets a chunk of a state sales tax for conservation programs, and Colorado, which gets all of the state lottery proceeds for wildlife and open space.
Lawmakers in Virginia have been telling board members to wait another year. Sportsmen only can hope that won't be the attitude concerning the boat titling funds. Failure to win this one would be a crushing blow to the department's programs and morale.