NOVA FUNDS HELD HOSTAGE
Your Nonhighway and Offroad Vehicle Activities appropriation for the next two years did not happen during the 2017 legislative sessions.
This is the money collected from your ORV permit purchases and from the offroad portion of gas tax revenue.
Thanks to multi-year lobbying efforts by WOHVA and the NMA, the appropriation was to be increased to over 14 million dollars, up from about 9 million just a few years ago.
NOVA funds are a critical funding source for motorized trail based recreation in our state. Currently the NOVA grants that Washington Department of Natural Resources and United States Forest Service land managers count on to keep ORV areas open are all on hold until if and when the NOVA appropriation happens.
The NOVA appropriation was bundled into the massive capital budget legislation. Even though the Legislature held multiple special sessions, they failed to pass the capital budget bill due to a partisan battle over including water rights legislation in the budget language.
The water rights issue is based on a Supreme Court decision that drastically restricted people’s right to put water wells on their property. While this is an important issue to resolve, it is totally unfair to harm offroad vehicle enthusiasts in the process.
Please tell both of your Washington State House of Representatives members and your Washington State Senator to stop holding your money hostage and make a full NOVA fund appropriation as soon as they start the 2018 legislative session.
If you don’t know who they are or how to contact them, go to www.leg.wa.gov
Keep an eye on the Washington Off Highway Vehicle Alliance (WOHVA) and Northwest Motorcycle Association (NMA) Facebook pages to stay up to date on this and other important off highway vehicle news.
