Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1370554
IN THE WIND P46 $5 Million In Grant Money Returned To Colorado OHV Program T he Colorado OHV Grant fund will have $5 million in surplus money returned to the program! Additionally, the program will receive an increase in funding of almost $2 million annually. This is a huge win for motorized recre- ation in Colorado. "Earlier last year we were in the unfortunate position of having to report the sweep of $5 million in funds from the OHV program cash reserve in response to the Covid outbreak," the Trails Pres- ervation Alliance reported. "We are pleased to announce that with the passage of SB 21-225, the $5 million in registration fund money has been returned to the CPW OHV program to be used for OHV purposes. In addition to the return of the surplus money, legislative spending authori- zations for the OHV program increased from $4.3 million to $6 million annually. This will ensure that large cash reserves (i.e. the $5 million) will not accrue in the future and each year this money can be put to work for OHV-relat- ed projects across Colorado the way it was intended." "I'm philosophically opposed to using cash funds to balance the state's budget," said Senator Bob Rankin (R District 8) member of the Joint Budget Committee and sponsor of Senate Bill 225. "However, responding to the Covid pandemic required budget cuts no one wanted to make. When the time came to look at undoing some of the cuts we had to make last year, repaying the OHV fund became a priority of mine. I felt it was one of the more egregious cash-fund sweeps we had to make. And given the fact that we have a lot of backcoun- try to repair due to overuse and historic wildfires, I wanted to pay back this fund in particular." "It's not often that cash funds get repaid," said Landon Gates, a lobbyist for the Powersports Dealers Association of Colorado (PDAC). "We were fortunate enough to have Senator Rankin do much of the heavy lifting behind the scenes, and working together, we were able to use PDAC's membership to help edu- cate the other members of the Joint Budget Committee on the serious need for backcountry trail repair. Once there was an agree- ment to repay the OHV fund, we really just stepped out of the way and let the bill proceed through the legislative process without drawing any questions as to why this cash fund was getting repaid when others weren't." With all recreation uses seeing unprecedented increases in users, the timing of this bill could not be better. This money was collected from OHV registrations and was intended to fund OHV projects and maintenance. These funds now can be used for that purpose. This is a big win for everyone that buys an in-state or out-of-state Colorado OHV registration and all users that utilize multi-use trail systems in Colorado. CN Off-roaders scored a big win in Colorado.