A joint committee of both the House and Senate – largely made up of legislative leaders – killed an effort by Rep. J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio, to study permitting all-terrain vehicles on county roads.
“I’m an ex-bull rider, and I don’t like getting bucked off,” Brown told the committee. “It looks like I’m going to get bucked off.”
Brown thought he had reached a compromise by proposing only to study the issue. He had run a bill that would have outright permitted use of the vehicles on roads.
But in both instances, Brown ran into spending concerns. The bill that would have simply allowed use on roads would have generated nearly $6 million in revenue from registration fees, increasing the amount required to be refunded to taxpayers. Lawmakers would have had to cut important areas of the state budget.
In the case of the study, legislative leaders expressed concerns about the cost of forming a commission.
Rural lawmakers have been working on the issue for at least six years with no progress.
Brown said he plans to petition leaders to develop a legislative committee to examine the issue during the summer, after the Legislature adjourns.