I’ve been distracted this week by a proposal in the Maine legislature to require a $10.00 registration fee for all non-motorized watercraft. The proposal now seems dead in the water due to substantial uproar from paddlers near and far.
“What is it about this proposal that has gotten under my skin?” I’ve been asking myself. I stayed up late 2 nights exchanging emails with other MASKGI (Maine Association of Sea Kayak Guides and Instructors) members and typing rather cutting emails to local representatives and senators. Part of it, I think, is that for me — and for many others apparently — kayaking represents the opposite of the world that has anything to do with regulation, registration, government,or financial responsiblity. Kayaking is about getting away from all that. Something in me recoils at the thought of mixing the two: don’t put any red tape betweeen me and my kayak!
Although the $10.00 fee may seem small in the eyes of some, the registration is a symbolic intrusion upon a very fundamental recreational activity that has never been taxed before and still is not taxed in most other states. If you tax environmentally and socially benign activities such as canoeing and kayaking, it becomes a slippery slope toward taxing other activities — camping, hiking, swimming, cross country skiing, mountain biking, birdwatching, and so on. I can’t see the logic of taxing one of these activities unless you tax all of them. And the idea of paying a fee in order to step into my kayak and paddle it out into Penobscot Bay is just as repugnant to me as the idea of paying a fee in order to pull on a pair of boots and hike off into the woods behind my house. See the thread I started on Paddling.net for more views.
2 replies on “Uproar Over Kayak Tax”
i agree with you that it seems silly to tax kayaks, but what about the Maine tax proposal to tax guns and bullets to pay for court metal detector personnel? It seems like Maine needs money and is trying to make logical connections between the taxes and the expenses to be covered.
I understand that there was a large outcry about that as well. Are there costs the state is trying to recover that they have due to kayaking? Is there congestion at the public landings? Are their safety costs such as rescue missions to be covered? Are all other boats taxed and just NOT kayaks which would be a bureacratic difficulty?
Thanks for your response! (The proposal to tax guns and bullets to pay for court metal detector personnel seems silly as well). “Nonmotorized boating” is a such as diverse activity (to tax someone who floats a 8 foot keowee kayak on a pond for a few hours each summer the same as someone who logs hundreds of hours on the northern lakes seems unfair). Many paddlers place very little demand on state resources. For example, many kayakers do not utilize state public landings. I do almost all of my paddling in the ocean. I value IF&W and the work they do, but realistically, since I paddle in the ocean, they have very little to do with my kayaking. And if I needed rescue, it would be the coast guard not IF&W that would get the call.