Montana Motorcyclists made a fuss


KWJams

~SPONSOR~
Sep 22, 2000
1,167
4
THE BIG BILL AND MOTORCYCLISTS by Dal Smilie, AMA Vice Chairman

HB 124 known as "the Big Bill" proposes a lot of changes to local
government. The bill also took funds from the Montana Motorcycle Safety
Education Program and the OHV stickie funds at FW&P. It raised fees on
license plates and doubled the cost of vintage motorcycle plates. AMA,
ABATE, MTVRA, MT BMW Riders, Billings MC and our motorcycle safety
instructors started sending members of the House Local Government Committee
messages. And more, and more.

While motorcycle interests were only a small part of the overall bill we
constantly heard at hearings how much they had heard from us. On March 20
all of our amendments were adopted by a committee taking motorcycling out of
this bill. We had testified against raising our fees and Governor Martz
said she wouldn't sign the bill if it raised fees. The following day the
newspapers stated that motorcyclists had been the only group to testify
against these fee increases.

The beginning of the March 20 hearing started with an explanation of how the
bill now satisfied motorcyclists. The sponsor stated, "you can remember
being flooded with yellow messages from motorcycle people". He went on to
say how professional and knowledgeable the motorcycle representatives were.
He alluded to the quality of amendments prepared by MMSAC and ABATE's
Michele Hand.

Motorcyclists not only won this fight but came away with greater respect
from some key legislators. This can only help prevent other anti motorcycle
legislation in the future.

Pat yourself on the back, you did a great job. Send a message to the
Governor and thank her for refusing to go along with fee increases for us.
Thank Rep Bob Story, the sponsor, for listening to us. Thank Rep Dave
Wanzenried for being particularly helpful. Really, we had several committee
members making sure our issues were remembered.

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Ken & Diane James
AMA Field Reps #869
*AMA-Cycle.Org*
*PRO-Hillclimbers*
 

Farmer John

T.C.F.<br>(tire changin' fool)
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Mar 8, 2000
1,993
7
Okay, Ken,
send me a list of homes for sale in Montana.

That is great. I wonder if Montana & California could do a little govt. employee swapping.
 

KWJams

~SPONSOR~
Sep 22, 2000
1,167
4
Does make you feel good that there are victories still won.
smile.gif


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Ken & Diane James
AMA Field Reps #869
*AMA-Cycle.Org*
*PRO-Hillclimbers*
 

Ol'89r

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 27, 2000
6,961
45
Good one Ken. We have a lot more pull than we think. We just have to stick together. Remember, the squeeky wheel gets the oil.

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"Old age and treachery, sumthin, sumthin, can't remember the rest."
Ol'89r
 

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