Snowmobile registration fee hike killed

An increase in the snowmobile registration fee was killed by the legislature’s IFW Committee, after a lengthy discussion.

The bill would have increased the registration fee by $30, if the snowmobiler did not belong to a snowmobile club. Legislators recognized that the club membership would be difficult to verify at the town offices where snowmobiles are registered. $20 of the fee would go to the trail fund.

The committee also discussed possibly raising the fee for all snowmobile registrations. And there was recognition that we need more volunteers to maintain trails.

The Maine Snowmobile Association opposed the bill, and the group’s director, Bob Meyers, told the committee that lots of changes were made two years ago and a lot more money was now going to the clubs.  Bob reported that Maine has 14,000 miles of snowmobile trails and 300 snowmobile clubs, and about $5 million now goes to clubs and trails.

The committee voted 9 to 1 against the bill.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.