Flow Chart: Gas Tax Funding of Motorized Recreation
Every time Minnesotans buy gasoline for our cars and farm vehicles we pump gas-tax revenue into dedicated accounts for snowmobiles, ATVs, dirt-bike motorcycles, four-wheel drive trucks and motorboats. Each form of motorized recreation in Minnesota automatically and perpetually receives a legislated percentage of the state’s total collected gas-tax revenue every six months on November and June 1. $188 million in gas tax revenue has been diverted to motorized recreation since 1994. Newly legislated gas-tax increase boosts diversions to motorized recreation to $42 million/biennium.
Minnesota Statutes - 296A.18, 86B.706, 84.83, 84.927 and 84.803 - divert ~3% of the state’s gas-tax revenue to motorized recreation. Statutes dedicate an annual percentage of the state’s gas-tax to each form of motorized recreation in the chart above. Use and consumption studies commissioned by the legislature estimate how much gasoline snowmobiles, ATVs, dirt-bike motorcycles, four-wheel drive trucks and motorboats are burning. These statutes are based on an unchallenged and erroneous assumption (challenged below) that off-road vehicles do not use the state’s right-of-ways and should thus not be taxed.
Minnesota’s Constitution dedicates 100% of the gas-tax to Minnesota’s roads. Diversions to motorized recreation violate our state’s constitution.
Minnesota Constitution, Article XIV, Sec. 5. HIGHWAY USER TAX DISTRIBUTION FUND. There is hereby created a highway user tax distribution fund to be used solely for highway purposes as specified in this article. The fund consists of the proceeds of any taxes authorized by sections 9 and 10 of this article. The net proceeds of the taxes shall be apportioned: 62 percent to the trunk highway fund; 29 percent to the county state-aid highway fund; nine percent to the municipal state-aid street fund.
Proponents of gas-tax diversions to motorized recreation argue that snowmobiles, ATVs, dirt-bike motorcycles and four-wheel drive trucks do not use the state’s right-of ways - publicly owned corridors that include roads and ditches - and are thus exempt from paying gas-tax. (Art. XIV, Sec. 10 of the Constitution restricts taxation to gasoline “..used for propelling vehicles on the public highways of this state..” ). Of course snowmobiles, ATVs, dirt-bike motorcycles and four-wheel drive trucks are using our right-of-ways as anyone who lives or travels in suburban and Greater Minnesota knows. The DNR, whose Trails and Waterways Division is largely subsidized (currently ~$15 million/biennium) by these gas-tax diversions, has enacted rules making it legal for snowmobiles, ATVs, dirt-bike motorcycles and four-wheel drive trucks to use our state’s right-of-ways as non-paying customers.
Minnesota’s gas-tax promotes motorized recreation:
Gas-tax funds pay the salaries of some DNR Trails & Waterways Division staff whose self-interest is to promote snowmobile, ATV, dirt-bike motorcycle and four-wheel drive truck access to public and private land. The more motorized trails DNR can generate the more use of motorized recreational vehicles and consumption of gasoline by these machines occurs. Diversions of gas-tax revenue to the DNR are based on such use and consumption. DNR Trails & Waterways Division provide gas-tax funded grants to snowmobile and ATV clubs to promote a self-perpetuating and ever-expanding motorized recreation system.
Gas-tax funds pay snowmobile and ATV clubs for bulldozing, chainsawing, computer work, attending meetings, mileage, and other “allowable charges” enumerated in the DNR’s Snowmobile and ATV Trail Assistance Program manuals. While most Minnesotans believe ATV trail designation restricts machines to designated routes and provides enforcement and damage repair, this is incorrect. In the DNR’s own words “the actual effect of designation is to transfer [gas-tax] funds from the state to local clubs.”
Gas-tax funds are disbursed through ~100 local governments acting as fiscal agents/sponsors of snowmobile and ATV clubs. Cities, townships and counties must pass resolutions authorizing disbursement of gas-tax funds to local clubs but generally do so on consent agenda without discussion, oversight and accountability.
2008 transportation finance law increases the state’s gas-tax from 20 to 28.5 cents per gallon. This 42.5% increase will generate a corresponding increase in the total collected gas-tax. The increased total will result in a corresponding windfall for motorized recreation which receives an ongoing fixed percentage, ~3%, of the total collected gas-tax. 2008 tax legislation may increase the percentage of gas-tax diverted to the ATV account from .0015% to .0024%. Gas-tax diversions to motorized recreation will soon reach $50 million per biennium.
Unwanted effects of gas-tax diversions to motorized recreation: Gas-tax diversions to motorized recreation siphon needed funds away from our state’s roads and bridges. According to Mn/DOT ATVs are doing irreparable damage to our state’s right-of-ways. Local units of government violate of grant agreements requiring adequate maps of gas-tax funded routes, written easements from landowners and permits to cross streams and wetlands. Snowmobile and ATV clubs trespass on private and public land damaging forests and wetlands. 2003 legislative audit recommendations for environmental review, enforcement, damage repair and oversight have been ignored.
Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation is working to end gas-tax diversions to motorized recreation. Mn House File 3781 / Senate File 3468 repeal statutes that will soon siphon ~$50 million/biennium away from our state's roads and bridges.
*1.5% gas-tax diversion to motorboats is calculated after refunds to agriculture and transit - $8 million.
Other Resources
MRR Roads Not Ruts Campaign: Stay informed, get involved and support MRR’s legislative, legal and local campaigns to protect our state’s roads and trails.
Reforming Gas-tax Funding of Motorized Recreation: Toolkit for the Quiet Majority 2/8/08
