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01/16/2008

That's because snowmobile clubs are largely responsible for grooming trails across the state. And to groom a trail, you need special equipment and, most importantly, the fuel to power that equipment. As fuel costs have skyrocketed, so have the costs to groom trails. The state normally funnels a percentage of snowmobile registration fees to the clubs to cover grooming costs, but this year, so much snow has fallen that grooming budgets are nearing empty already.

What to do? Well, one option would be to declare gas-guzzling outdoor sports obsolete in the age of expensive fuel and sign up all the snowmobile aficionados for Nordic ski lessons. That's the cold-day-in-purgatory option, rendered highly unlikely by the fact that snowmobiling brings a lot of free-spending tourists to the state during the winter.

Instead, the industry has taken a different tack: Get more money from the state. Officials in the Department of Conservation know a powerful constituency when they see one and have proposed that the Legislature increase registration fees for both in-state and out-of-state snowmobile owners. The two-tiered system would extract higher payments out of those who are not members of snowmobile clubs. In other words, the state will set fees that will drive snowmobilers to join clubs, thereby increasing club revenue which will, in turn, pay for trail maintenance, as would any excess funds from the state's license collection.

You could look at this solution one of two ways. There's the nice way, which is that the current situation represents a great public-private partnership that keeps an important recreational industry going in Maine. Without the hundreds of club volunteers helping keep trails open, snowmobiling in Maine wouldn't thrive and we'd lose a lot of tourists during the winter -- so the Legislature should hike fees and give the clubs the money for gas.

And then there's the hardheaded way, which would be to ask whether this kind of deal is one that deserves support. If it does, what about all the other industries in Maine -- should we be hiking license fees to support nonprofit auto insurance clubs like AAA? There could be a long line of supplicants just behind the snowmobile club members.

And while some snowmobilers are already whining that any fee hike will hurt them, we're not convinced that folks who spend thousands on their hobby can legitimately complain about high license fees. Remember, this is a recreational activity, not an essential one.

Maine has little choice in this situation. In an era of budget cutting, the volunteer labor supplied by snowmobile club members who groom trails represents a huge donation in time that the state would be hard pressed to pay for. It may be a deal the Legislature makes with its collective back up against the wall, but all things considered, it's a pretty good deal. Hike the fees.

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