Among group’s priorities: no tax increases for boaters
Oct 10 2012 in Business of Boating, Currents by Deborah Bach
The NMTA will lobby for five main priorities during next year’s legislative session in Olympia.
Preventing tax increases on boaters, protecting a fund used for boating improvements and relaxing the rules for cruising permits are among priorities the Northwest Marine Trade Association will be pursuing next year.
The NMTA’s government affairs committee recently identified a list of five priorities for Washington’s next legislative session in January, based on a survey of NMTA members in June. The list includes the following:
Marine tourism bill – The proposed bill would change the rules for cruising permits so that visiting boats owned by out-of-state entities could stay longer. Under current law, boats owned by business entities from outside of Washington can remain only for 60 days, then must either leave or pay 10 percent of the boat’s value in sales tax.
Marine jobs bill – The proposed bill would cap sales tax on vessels at $300,000. The legislation would bring $9 million in annual revenue to the state and provide additional employment for maritime workers, an NMTA-commissioned study found.
Marina dock construction – The NMTA is lobbying to make it easier to build docks at marinas by exempting them from a permit if their project is under a certain dollar amount. Under current law, marinas must get a permit to build a dock if the cost is more than $2,500 in a saltwater area, and more than $10,000 in a freshwater marina. The dollars amount threshold for construction of freshwater docks has not been increased in 15 years.
Tax increases – Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed a 10 percent “luxury tax” on boats purchased at $50,000 or more. The NMTA opposes the measure and is also remaining watchful about a proposal made in 2010 to eliminate the trade-in deduction for boat purchases. The deduction allows boat owners who trade in their vessels for more expensive ones to pay sales tax only on the difference between the two prices, rather than on the total price of the more expensive boat.
Recreation and Resource Account (RRA) – The RRA is a voter-approved dedicated account aimed at improving boating access throughout the state. Funds from the account, which come from gas taxes paid by boaters, have been used for items such as installing boat ramps and improving bathrooms. The state diverted $3.3 million from the fund this year to help balance its budget, and previously swept $9 million from the RRA to its general fund during the 2009-2010 legislative session.
The five priorities were identified by NMTA as the most important out of a list of 15 in a survey conducted every two years. Issues that didn’t make the top five include creating a state Office of Boating, recalculating rents paid to the Department of Natural Resources for marine land, not raising petroleum taxes, keeping the watercraft excise tax in place and establishing a marine innovation center, among others.
Peter Schrappen, the NMTA’s director of government affairs, said the 2013 legislative session is more unpredictable than usual, given the upcoming election.
“It’s a long session, 105 days, with a new governor and a bunch of open seats,” he said. “It will be a new legislature, for the most part. There will be a lot of folks we haven’t worked with in the past.”
Captain said on October 10, 2012
In eleven short months (Sept 2013)the largest private yachts in the world $$$$ will be in San Francisco to view the 2013 America’s Cup Racing. Following the America’s Cup finals all those owners and captains will make a decision of whether to come north and visit Washington, British Columbia and Alaska or they can choose to head south along California and then Mexico and Central America. NOW HEAR THIS WA STATE LEGISTLATORS….SOME MONEY IS BETTER THAN NO MONEY!!!! These owners of the worlds largest yachts are all Type A with fleets of accountants and attorneys. Unless these Washington State yacht sales tax laws are changed ASAP all these yachts will cruise right by all of Washington State waters and you can take that to the bank. None of the Marine Trade members will make a dime. A giant opportunity lost.