Quote:
Originally Posted by matte
I would have no problem paying $70 IF the money actually went to right place, but my understanding of the situation is this: the allocation of those funds is controlled by the OHV Commission, and right now that commission is totally controlled by Paul Spitler and a bunch of other eco-wacks from the Sierra Club, California Wilderness Coalition, etc. and they block every effort to spend any of that money on what it was intended for; maintenance of our riding areas. They don't even try to hide the fact that they've turned it into the "OHV Elimination Commission"! What would be the point of giving them roughly twice as much money if the only thing they're spending it on is closing riding areas and "restoring" them? Talk about putting the fox in charge of the hen house!!! Am I wrong about any of this?
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Hello Matt- you are correct, but this committee from what I understood, is out at the end of this year or 08, which, unfortunately at the same time is when the Green Sticker program "sunsets", which means the law expires. Yup, this program has been hijacked by a lot of people in our halls of the State Capitol for way longer than Mr. Spitler and company have been at the commission. Im totally with you Matt. They used the fact gas prices have more than tripled since the start of the sticker thus justifying the need to hike the price of the sticker. I think in a way a user fee may be better for the OHV parks and just dump the stickers; everyone that goes to the privately operated MX tracks are paying what basically is a user fee of 15-20 dollars every time they ride there. Sure if youre a OHV park system rider, it'll cost you more, but at the same time you are directly giving the parks the funds, not thru an old and once great program to those who keep basically diverting the money. If Foresthill even could charge $5 a rider, they wouldve had at mininum $500,000 just for the year and there would be on-going riding, no temporary closures. Theyre trying just to get $10,000? Another point thats real amusing to me- the U.S. Forest Service is under the Federal Government umbrella and EVERYONE knows how the Feds love to collect money from us in any way possible- The Forest Service, by law, is NOT ALLOWED to accept A MONETARY DONATION OF ANY KIND. Your trying to give them money and they cant take it. How dumb does that sound? I, like many have watched riding areas close left and right and like Magoo said, the motorcycle community NEVER bands together. Thanks Matt for your correct assessment and staying informed about this ridiculous situation. We need more informed riders and ones that will write or call their state legislature reps and be volunteers. Like my original thread says regarding funding, there are ideas in the works. Pass the word.