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The US Congress, in the next few weeks, will be
considering legislation called The Safe, Accountable,
Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act
of 2003, SAFETEA. There is a provision in this legislation
of particular interest and that is the Recreational
Trails Program (RTP).
The RTP was established in 1991 as a part of ISTEA
and improved through TEA-21. This program utilizes
a portion of the federal tax receipts attributable
to off-highway recreational activities including
ATV riding, motorcycling, snowmobiling and 4x4s
for purposes of maintaining and improving recreational
trails throughout the country. Since its inception,
literally millions of Americans have benefited from
the recreational trails that have been developed
and maintained in every state of the union with
monies from this program. And, it is important to
note that these trails are both motorized and non-motorized
trails.
The Federal Highway Administration's most recent
estimate of the amount of tax revenue generated
by off-highway recreational activities is $286 million
annually. The SAFETEA legislation has proposed that
just 21% of this revenue contributed by off-highway
recreationists be devoted to the RTP program.
Because of the importance of this program and the
fact that every year more and more Americans seek
to use recreational trails for a variety of activities,
the AMA believes that a more appropriate figure
should be 50% of the $286 million annual revenue
figure. Investing more revenue from off-highway
generated taxes to improve the safety of such activities
by constructing and maintaining recreational trails
is an appropriate use of these monies.
The bill and a sample letter of support can be found
on the “Rights” page of
http://www.AMADirectLink.com/.
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