Snowmobile registration, trail use sticker requirements, intoxicated snowmobiling, snowmobile speed limits, calculating the estimated snowmobile gas tax payment, funding for alcohol education programs and state trails, providing penalties, and making appropriations

This bill eliminates the two-year registration period for a public-use registration and provides that a public-use registration is valid until ownership of the snowmobile is transferred. The bill also lowers the public-use registration fee from $30 to $15.

2. Under current law, a person who owns a snowmobile that is not registered in this state or is exempt from registration must display a trail use sticker issued by DNR on the snowmobile. The fee for this sticker is $35. This bill requires all snowmobiles to display a trail use sticker, regardless of whether the snowmobile is registered in this state. The bill provides that the fee for a trail use sticker issued for a snowmobile that is registered in this state is $14.25 if the snowmobile is owned by a snowmobile club member and $34.25 if the owner does not belong to a snowmobile club.

3. Current law requires absolute sobriety for any person operating a snowmobile who is under the age of 19. This bill increases this age so that the absolute sobriety requirement applies to anyone under the age of 21.

4. The bill imposes increased penalties for operating a snowmobile under the influence of an intoxicant or with alcohol concentrations above specified levels if the snowmobile is operated with a passenger under 16 years of age.

5. Current law prohibits a person from operating a snowmobile at night at a rate of speed exceeding 55 miles per hour. Current law sunsets this provision on July 1, 2010. This bill repeals the sunset.

6. Under current law, DNR provides funding from the snowmobile account in the conservation fund for snowmobile regulation purposes including aids to counties for activities such as snowmobile trail development and maintenance and law enforcement. Currently, these activities are funded by snowmobile fees and by moneys transferred from the transportation fund to the conservation fund. The amount of this transfer equals the estimated snowmobile gas tax formula. The estimated snowmobile gas tax formula amount is based on an estimate of the amount of excise tax paid on gasoline by operators of all snowmobiles registered in this state.

This bill bases the estimated snowmobile gas tax formula on an estimate of the excise tax paid on gasoline by operators of registered snowmobiles in this state who are issued a trail use sticker.

7. This bill provides additional funding from the snowmobile account in the conservation fund in fiscal years 2010-11 to 2012-13 for alcohol education programs for snowmobilers, for law enforcement, and for the development and maintenance of state trails.

Because this bill creates a new crime or revises a penalty for an existing crime, the Joint Review Committee on Criminal Penalties may be requested to prepare a report concerning the proposed penalty and the costs or savings that are likely to result if the bill is enacted.