Lobbyist Report – January 2019
MMA Legislative Update
We want to remind everyone that our yearly Motorcycle Day At The Dome is Wednesday 2/19/20 at the state Capitol, 1700 W. Washington. Please mark your calendars and watch for additional information.
Your lobby team is in the process of discussing, drafting, and preparing for the 2020 legislative session. We had a very productive meeting with Alberto Gutier, Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. We talked about a bill we are running in 2020, to extend the Sunset Date on our Motorcycle Safety Fund. The Motorcycle Safety Fund is comprised of the $1 extra that motorcyclists pay on their registration. Vehicles pay $8, except for motorcycles who pay $9.
A Little History:
In 1981, legislation was passed adding an additional $l to every motorcycle registration, ARS28-205, currently ARS28-2003. This extra $1 was placed into a Motorcycle Education Fund. The Director of ADOT was to use those monies to implement a motorcycle testing program and a voluntary motorcycle education program. They were allowed to use public and private agencies to implement the education program.
MVD provided and made available, an abundance of educational motorcycle and awareness materials. MVD was also tasked to provide motorcycle- testing programs at their sites. By the mid 90’s, this task had fallen by the wayside.
In the mid to late 1990’s an ad-hoc Motorcycle Advisory Council was brought about by town hall meetings us lobbyists had been attending. We named this council the State Motorcycle Safety Advisory Council (SMSAC), which was made up of representatives from the MRO’s, GoldWing Riders, Law Enforcement, Motorcycle Businesses and Rider Ed Third Parties. We met and worked with MVD on a regular basis, to recommend various ways for MVD to spend that money in the promotion of Motorcycle Safety and Awareness. We wrote vision statements and guidelines etc.
The ad-hoc council continually questioned MVD as to how our approximately $80,000 a year was and had been being used towards motorcycle safety and awareness. They could not account for one dime of it. Dedicated funds had since been eliminated, and it seemed our monies were lost in the MVD general fund, and being used for who knows what. We also found that there were only a few MVD sites that still did motorcycle training.
In 2001, the motorcycle lobbyists, took action and introduced and passed legislation to re-establish a dedicated Motorcycle Safety Fund (MSF) ARS28-2010.
In 2002, we met with John Carlson (Governors office) and State Representative Cooley, to draft, introduce and pass legislation to legislatively appropriate our then $80,000. We amended the language (ARS 28-2010) to move the newly dedicated motorcycle safety fund from 2001, under the realm of the GOHS, and established a 5 person Governor appointed Arizona Motorcycle Safety Advisory Council (AMSAC).
Four members of the original ad-hoc council at that time, Bobbi Hartmann (ABATE), Larry Kenyon (DPS motor), Mark Weiss (TEAM AZ), and Dick Studdard (GoldWing Riders) were appointed to that initial council. An ex-Tempe police officer rounded out the first 5 appointed members.
The council promoted motorcycle safety and awareness and advised the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety on the expenditures of monies in the Motorcycle Safety Fund. The council no longer exists, but your lobby team assures that our monies are going to a good cause.
Our whole goal from the beginning was to use those monies to educate the public through motorcycle awareness AND subsidize motorcycle training!! Thanks in part to AMSAF we have that now. Much of our Motorcycle Safety Fund is used to provide Grants to the Arizona Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Foundation. They in turn provide scholarships to the public to reduce the cost of motorcycle training. This is a very big deal!!!
Our 2020 agenda so far:
– Moving forward the Motorcycle Safety Fund Sunset Date
– Working on language and intro of lane filtering legislation.
– Working with courts so that ticketed riders are able to attend a motorcycle safety course rather than a driver’s class.
– Working with a Senator regarding infrastructure and assuring gas tax is used according to designation.
Bobbi Hartmann
MMA of AZ Authorized Lobbyist
Skypilot
MMA of AZ Designated Lobbyist