On March 19, 2007 the Massachusetts Legislative Boating Caucus met
at the State House to discuss issues relative to the Massachusetts recreational marine
trades and boating community. The
Caucus consists of over 50 members of the Legislature who meet several
times throughout the year to discuss and advance initiatives directed at
preserving the marine trades' recreational boating industry in Massachusetts and
enhancing the boating experience.
MMTA is honored to support Boating Caucus Chairman Anthony Verga and his staff in facilitating the
Boating Caucus.
Chairman Anthony Verga (Gloucester) led an engaging discussion with
an eye toward the next two years of legislative hearings. Fellow Boating Caucus members
participating in the meeting included Representatives Paul Donato (Medford), Antonio Cabral (New Bedford), Cleon Turner (Barnstable), Eric Turkington (Falmouth and
Islands), Mary Grant (Beverly)
and Stephen Canessa (New
Bedford). Staff for Senators
Michael Morrissey (South Shore), Robert O'Leary (Cape and Islands), Susan
Tucker (North Shore) and Stephen Brewer (Central MA) as well as
Representative Mark Falzone (Saugus) were also in attendance.
Meeting participants spoke about
legislation pertaining to vessels abandoned on land and water, federal and
state mandatory boating education, boat registration fees relative to
invasive aquatic species, moorings administration, dredging and disposal
needs, ocean management and boat excise taxes.
Chairman Verga is the lead
sponsor of HB3781, which is MMTA's proposal for reducing the costs and
speeding the system for marina operators to dispose legally of vessels
abandoned on their property. Chairman Verga expressed confidence in the
bill's chances of passage but urged Caucus members to continue their vocal
advocacy. HB3781 is MMTA's top legislative
priority. Association members are
urged to contact their elected officials and ask them to make HB3781 their
legislative priority as well. Our
Government Relations and Legal Counsel, Jamy Buchanan Madeja, would welcome
your call or email asking for talking points or to volunteer to testify at
the upcoming public hearing. She can be reached at 617-227-8410, ext. 234
or jmadeja@buchananassociates.com.
Representative Cabral, lead
sponsor of HB726 (relative to vessels abandoned in water) thanked MMTA and
Caucus members for their ongoing support of his bill that would require
removal of vessels abandoned in water.
Currently the Coast Guard limits its removal actions to navigational
channels while vessels abandoned elsewhere often remain in place for long
periods of time. MMTA also supports this bill.
Chairman Verga has also refiled
HB2400, relative to safe boater education, which had been championed by
former Caucus member and now retired State Representative Shirley
Gomes. MMTA supports this
legislation for several reasons.
First, it would phase in the requirement to avoid mandating older,
experienced boaters from sitting for the class. Second, it would allow private entities to offer classes
rather than just the Commonwealth.
Finally, the US Coast Guard is actively supporting federal
legislation that would require ALL boaters to take a course regardless of
their experience if states do not already have a system in
place.
Senator O'Leary and Representative Hynes are seeking to repeal
Senator Morrissey's successful efforts to require communities to charge the
same mooring fees to residents and nonresidents. MMTA takes no position on how localities should be allowed to
charge reasonable mooring permit fees, but we noted at the Caucus that
repealing the law should be done carefully, if it is done at all, so as not
to repeal authority for localities to be charging any mooring permit fees
at all. Many of our colleagues in the Harbormasters' offices statewide rely
on some reasonable mooring fees for a good chunk of their local
budgets.
Additionally, at MMTA's request
and with MMTA's assistance, Senator Morrissey has filed a new bill, SB2075,
to affirm legislatively the current "Chapter 91" regulatory provision
allowing marinas, boatyards and yacht clubs to receive moorings assignments
for sublease or rental to individual customers, patrons or members. Though the current State Inspector
General, Gregory Sullivan, has sought to change this long-standing and
balanced element of the statewide moorings assignment regulations, MMTA is
optimistic that as the Inspector General learns more about the public
benefits provided by marinas, boatyards and yacht clubs, his position may change.. The Boating Caucus discussed
this subject, and those members present indicated support for the marinas,
boat yards and yacht clubs.
The Boating Caucus also addressed
the subject of invasive species concerns in lakes and ponds. A handful of bills would require
increased fees on boaters to fund invasive aquatic species remediation in
lakes and ponds. MMTA does not support this approach. By contrast, MMTA welcomes HB729's fair
and equitable language earmarking $2 million from the Massachusetts General
Fund for this important effort.
Representative Canessa, lead sponsor of HB729, stated that invasive
weeds are threatening the health and safety of Commonwealth lakes and
ponds; however, transient boaters are not the sole or even necessarily the
main source of the problem. MMTA
maintains that targeting only boaters, who are required to register their
vessels, and not kayaks, canoes and other transient personal watercraft,or
property owners with heavily nutrient-loaded runoff into adjacent lakes and
ponds, is an unfair economic burden.
The Caucus also acknowledged that
there is insufficient funding for maintenance dredging and identification
of affordable disposal locations for dredged materials. Recently the Executive Office of Energy
and Environmental Affairs has thusfar denied approval for private funds to
create a dredged spoils disposal
site in Chelsea Creek, just off Boston's Inner Harbor. MMTA and the Boating Caucus were
disappointed with this decision. We
believe this is just the sort of solution that should have been embraced in
the Commonwealth: private funding of a confined aquatic site for safe
disposal of spoils which cannot be reused for beach nourishment or other
beneficial use elsewhere.
Additional bills of note that
have been refiled from the last legislative session and which were
discussed at the Boating Caucus include a ban on two-stroke engines, a new
ocean management planning authorization and fines or penalties for unpaid
boat excise taxes. MMTA and several
Caucus members present agreed that the proposed two-stroke engine ban is
based on outdated technology. MMTA
Executive Director Leona Roach
succinctly informed the assembled legislators that banning two-stroke
engines was like banning the combustion engine instead of improving its
emissions controls. MMTA is quite
optimistic we will again defeat this unproductive proposed ban.
Ocean Management is
and will remain a hot topic at the State House. The bills seek to require "ocean plans" specifying which uses
may and may not occur in the open ocean. MMTA has successfully secured text
in the current bills to protect boating and existing boating facilities
from additional duplicative use regulations. We anticipate isolated ocean-based facilities such as
off-shore LNG ports will result in open ocean closures to general boating,
for which the public will be compensated with additional funds for public
boating access points, but that in general, boating will not be limited by
the plans.
Finally, while the proper
remittance of boat excise taxes is a reasonable expectation of boaters,
many are unaware of the need to do so because they never receive a bill
from the municipality where the excise taxes are to be paid. Taxpayers should not be penalized for
the failure of municipalities to send notification that taxes are due.
MMTA supports penalties such as
non-renewal of boater registration when excise taxes remain due after fair
notice, but not before.
Representing MMTA at the March
Caucus meeting was Director Russ
Vickers of Hawthorne Cove Marina, Leona Roach, MMTA Executive Director, Jamy Buchanan
Madeja, Esq., MMTA Government
Relations & Legal Counsel and Nathalie
Grady, MMTA Public Affairs Director. MMTA thanks Chairman
Anthony Verga for inviting MMTA to
participate in this Boating Caucus meeting and looks forward to attending
the next meeting.
If
your elected officials are not members of the Massachusetts Legislative
Boating Caucus, please contact them to ask them to join. If you would like
assistance doing so, please contact Nathalie
Grady at 978-808-1408 or nathalie.grady@comcast.net. Questions on the abandoned vessel
legislation or any other legislative concerns may be directed to Jamy
Madeja at 617-227-8410 or jmadeja@buchananassociates.com. A
complete list of all bills Ms. Madeja tracks and lobbies for MMTA is posted
on the Members section of www.boatma.com.
Please join MMTA in thanking the Representatives and Senators who
comprise the Massachusetts Legislative Boating Caucus and encouraging them
to continue their involvement:
Senator Stephen M.
Brewer Senator Stephen
Buoniconti Senator Susan C. Fargo
Senator Robert Hedlund
Senator Joan
Menard Senator Michael W. Morrissey
Senator Robert O'
Leary Senator Bruce E. Tarr
Senator Susan
C. Tucker
Rep. Bruce Ayers Rep. Garrett
Bradley Rep. Antonio Cabral
Rep. Gale
Canderas Rep. Stephen Canessa
Rep. Paul C.
Casey
Rep. Robert Coughlin Rep. Robert
DeLeo Rep. Paul Donato
Rep. Mark
Falzone Rep. Michael
Festa Rep. Colleen Garry
Rep. Susan
Williams Gifford Rep. Mary Grant
Rep. Patricia
Haddad
Rep. Bradford Hill Rep. Frank
Hynes Rep. Kay Khan
Rep. Rachel
Kaprielian Rep. John Keenan
Rep. Peter
Kocot
Rep. Paul Kujawski Rep. Stephen
LeDuc Rep. John Lepper
Rep. Thomas
O'Brien Rep. Matthew Patrick
Rep. Douglas
Petersen
Rep. George Peterson Rep. John
Quinn Rep. Michael Rodrigues
Rep. John
Rogers Rep. Richard
Ross Rep. John Scibak
Rep.
Theodore Speliotis Rep. Harriett Stanley
Rep. William
Straus
Rep. Kathleen Teahan Rep. Eric
Turkington Rep. Cleon Turner
Rep.
Anthony J. Verga Rep. Brian
Wallace Rep. Martin Walsh
Rep. Steven
Walsh Rep. Martha Walz
