We are very pleased that Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has agreed to introduce an amendment to MAP-21 that will continue the RTP as a stand-alone program with its own funding. The amendment is expected to be introduced this week – so the time for action is now.
If this amendment is approved, then the RTP should be protected in both the Senate and House transportation bills. However, for Sen. Klobuchar’s effort to be successful, we must build support for her amendment. We need you to CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY OR TOMORROW and ask them to support Sen. Klobuchar’s amendment to include dedicated funding for the Recreational Trails Program in MAP-21.
The key messages are simple:
support trails
- Unless the bill is changed, MAP-21 will effectively eliminate the Recreational Trails Program; and
- Please support Senator Klobuchar’s MAP-21 amendment to include dedicated funding for the Recreational Trails Program (RTP).
Other helpful messages include:
- For the last two decades, RTP has received a portion of the gas taxes paid by users of off-highway motorized vehicles to fund trail building, maintenance and other trail-related projects. More than 13,000 projects have been funded across the country for all kinds of trail uses. This is a very successful program.
- At its current level of annual funding – $85 million – RTP receives less than 42% of the Federal Highway Administration’s conservative estimate of the federal gas taxes paid by America’s nonhighway recreationists. Unless it is amended, the Senate bill will reduce that percentage to zero and impose a substantial new tax on motorized recreation enthusiasts.
- The return of gas taxes to trail users through the RTP is in keeping with the user-pay, user-benefit philosophy of the Highway Trust Fund. Ending dedicated funding for RTP takes these gas taxes away from the people who pay them. Ending dedicated funding for RTP is bad public policy and just plain wrong.
- The RTP is the foundation of state trail programs. If the RTP loses its dedicated funding, organized trail planning and development will simply vanish in many areas of the country.
Additional background information can be found in the attached talking points.
If you are not sure who your Senators are or how to contact them, just use this link to identify them and find their telephone numbers: http://www.senate.gov/. The search tool can be found on the upper right of the webpage.
2 comments
She’s quite a popular senator in my home state of MN. Daughter of a well liked columnist from the MPLS Star-Tribune. She’s smart and real. Glad to know she’s still making a positive impact.
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We need more politicians like that. It’s good to know there are still some folks in that business who have their heads on straight.