Wednesday, March 16, 2011 | 1:24 p.m.
CARSON CITY – A 2009 law requiring the registration and titling of thousands of off-road vehicles is moving again after being stalled.
“It’s going to be a money raiser,” said Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Elko, who has worked to promote the law.
The 2-year-old law required the state Department of Motor Vehicles to start the program and to have the vehicle registration in effect by this July, but it didn’t get the money to do the job until this past January.
The Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday approved Senate Bill 130 to extend the deadline for getting the registration started until July 2012.
There are no estimates how many of these vehicles will have to register, but Tom Jacobs, spokesman for the Department of Motor Vehicles, said it will be in the thousands. The law exempts ranchers and farmers from registering their off-road vehicles.
Under the law, 60 percent of the money collected will be used for mapping, signing, enhancement and maintenance of existing trails and buying additional land for off-road vehicles to use. That 60 percent of the money will also be used for restoration of areas damaged by use of off-highway vehicles.
Twenty percent of the money must be used for law enforcement and 15 percent for safety training in using such vehicles. Five percent is set aside for administration.
The law creates an 11-member Commission on Off-Highway Vehicles, but the members haven't been appointed. The commission will set the registration fee. Jacobs said it might be between $25 and $30.
Kyle Davis of the Nevada Conservation League said the bill was a priority in the 2009 Legislature.
The bill to extend the deadline should come up for approval in the Senate sometime next week.
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