Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 22, 1995 TAG: 9510230110
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Taking a boat out of the water has been just as troublesome.
With the level of Smith Mountain Lake averaging about 2 feet below full pool recently, Weimer said the cement launch pad at the state's Scruggs boat ramp is too short.
``When you back your trailer down to the end of the ramp, you can't get your boat off because it isn't even 10 percent submerged,'' said Weimer, who lives in Roanoke.
If you back your trailer too far down the ramp, it will drop off the end, and that can damage the trailer, he said.
The problems are compounded at night, because the public ramp isn't lighted. There is a light at the ramp, but as far as Weimer knows it's never been connected.
``The wires are just hanging there,'' he said.
So it is good news for Weimer and other boaters across Virginia that the state has come into some money - big money - for boating access, safety and law enforcement.
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the agency that is responsible for Virginia's boating program, is about to get its first check from the watercraft sales and use tax fund. It will be for $653,500, and that's just a beginning.
Few people are happier about that than Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke.
``Can you believe it?!'' he exclaimed.
In 1990, Thomas headed a legislative subcommittee that looked into the long-range funding needs of the game and fish department. Out of that committee came a bill, sponsored by Thomas, that routes the watercraft sales and use tax to boating programs, where it belongs.
In the past, the money has gone to the state's general fund. Meanwhile, boating has had to be supplemented with money from hunting and fishing licenses to the tune of about $2.5 million annually.
Get the picture? The guy in the $60,000 yacht has been having his sport funded by the hunter and fisherman.
The Thomas bill, passed in 1994 with strong support from sportsmen, is expected to put the boating program on a self-sustaining basis and provide extra money for access, law enforcement and safety education. That means the money spent on boating from hunting and fishing funds can be spent on hunting and fishing.
The first check is for 50 percent of the tax money for the July-to-September quarter. The money is being phased in at the rate of 50 percent through 1998, 75 percent in 1999 and 100 percent thereafter.
``I predict that we will be getting $10 million by the year 2000,'' Thomas said.
As boating grows, so will the fund, which comes from a 2 percent tax collected on watercraft at the time a vessel is sold. A watercraft is defined as a boat 15 feet or longer with a motor of 25 horsepower or more or a sailboat greater than 18 feet in length.
Just why this tax always was earmarked for the general fund rather than the boating program is tough to explain to guys like Weimer, who simply want to get a craft into and out of the water.
The game and fish department already has put together a five-year plan of boating access needs, said Larry Hart, the agency's deputy director. The access program has been limping along for lack of money.
The extra funding also will mean the agency can address safety needs, particularly the high number of accidents involving personal watercraft, he said.
``We have a really good record of boating safety in Virginia, but when you spotlight accidents, the personal watercraft show up,'' said Hart. ``They represent only 4 percent of the registered boats in the state, but account for 33 percent of the accidents. It isn't just here, it is all over the nation.''
by CNB