The legislation I have been pushing in the assembly to allow
for certain UTVs to weigh more than regular ATVs (A.4971), so that they can be
registered at the DMV, has drawn significant opposition. While the bill
was reported out of the Transportation Committee and then out of the Codes
committee, the opposition prevented the bill from being considered by the Ways and
Means Committee. My bill has made it further than any bill of this kind
in the Assembly in many years and it will continue to be one of my top
priorities moving forward.
In an
attempt to further the increased weight issue after it had stalled, I proposed
an amendment to my bill to spur a dialogue between the ATV community and
environmental advocate groups. The amendment was well received by the
advocates, but in the end, they were unable to reach consensus to move forward
at this time. The proposed amendment has been taken off the table,
meaning our work will need to continue in order to gain approval of the heavier
side-by-side UTV's.
However,
the dialogue over the last few days has moved the UTV issue even further along
in the legislative process. There have been valuable discussions, and
commitments by all involved to continue to work on addressing the issues
important to everyone, and some common ground has been found.
While
there have been many people working on this issue with me, I would like to
acknowledge the St. Lawrence Legislature's work on this matter, being a driving
force on tackling these challenging issues. We have made significant
progress this year which may allow us to address several other related topics
as a result of my offer to work with those opposed to this bill.
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