Off-road vehicle registration bill dead

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 | 10:48 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said this morning that a bill to start requiring registration of off-road vehicles is dead.

His pronouncement came after he and the other members of the Senate Finance Committee were told that Gov. Kenny Guinn would not support Senate Bill 400 because it constitutes a new tax.

That prompted Raggio to say, "That pretty well takes care of this."

Off-road vehicle representatives had worked out a plan during the last year calling for a registration and a $25 fee for a two-year permit.

Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, said Nevada was probably the only state in the West that does not license off-road vehicles, which include dune buggies, snowmobiles and all-terrain motorcycles.

Half of the proposed $25 fee was to have gone to the state and the other half was to have been allocated to develop off-road trails and facilities for the vehicles.

But the state Department of Motor Vehicles told the Finance Committee today that it would be a losing deal for the state.

Dennis Colling, chief of administration for the department, said it would need to hire an additional 29 revenue officers to collect the fees. In 2006, the fees were projected to generate $3.2 million, but the fees and their collection system were projected to result in a $1.6 million loss for the state the following year. In future two-year periods, it would continue to be a losing proposition for the state, Colling said.

Before the governor's opposition was announced, Raggio told department officals to get together with the off-road representatives to work out a plan so the state would not lose money.

Rhoads recalled that in 2003 when a proposal was made to register off-road vehicles Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, the chairman of the Taxation Committee, "was almost mobbed" by owners of the vehicles.

Rhoads said the sides got together and agreed something needed to be done to regulate the vehicles.

Clay Thomas, DMV deputy director, said it has been difficult to determine how many off-road vehicles might be in the state. The estimates range from 15,000 to 425,000. The department has adopted an estimate of 135,000.

Josh Wilson of the Motorcycle Racing Association of Northern Nevada, said his group opposed the registration. He said there is $250,000 available in federal funds to the state to help develop off-road trails, but the state has applied for only $25,000.

Under the bill, owners of off-road vehicles used for farming and those in dealer inventory would have paid a one-time fee of $5.

If the Legislature passed the bill and the governor vetoed it, a two-thirds vote in each house would be needed to override the veto.