#DonAmador

California’s Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund is in danger of losing up to $31 million. California’s Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Resources and Transportation voted to raid the fund and transfer it to non-OHV related programs.

According to the Blue Ribbon Coalition, the OHV funds are slated to go to the Sustainable Parks Proposal, which is being championed by the California Parks Foundation, California State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) and other “anti-OHV organizations.”

Don Amador, Western Representative of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, tells ATV.com the OHV Program was enacted into law in the early 1970s as a way to pay for OHV management on local, state, and federal lands. Before the law was enacted, riders got a state tax refund based on fuel use off-pavement. The law took that tax refund and created the OHV Trust Fund as a way to support sustainable OHV recreation into the future. About 10 percent of the OHV Trust Fund comes from OHV registration (e.g. green sticker/red sticker) and the rest comes from an off-road fuel taxes (paid while users recreate off-pavement) calculated formula based on user visitor days on public lands.