Should the MOST Program go away?

[dirkterrell]

This is a an example of why I am against involuntary taxation to accomplish even admirable goals like this. It sounds to me like the politicians have gotten wind of a way to pull more money in for their spending frenzy. If MOST goes away, the money is still collected and then used for other things? Bullshit. And if that happens, then all motorcyclists need to raise holy hell about it. It is only "extremely difficult to end a tax on anything if the state is collecting it" if no noise is made about it in the wider arena. This kind of thing should have, at best, been set up as a voluntary contribution by motorcyclists. That way, when abuse arises, we can voice our disapproval by removing the funding. That is the only sure way to maintain control over something. If you give the government the right to take the funding by force, this is the kind of situation you inevitably end up in.

[bornwildnfree]

So, I owe Terry Howard a personal apology and ABATE as well. I do want to thank Terry for taking the time to reply to my ranty post and for setting the record straight as far as ABATE's position as well as her own. I will be editing the posts on FB and on the CSC with the new information. I should have checked with Terry before I went off and that was wrong and because I did not do so, I spread misinformation. That was not my intention and I let my anger against T3RG, Motorcycle Training Academy and the Coalition of Clubs cloud my judgment and ABATE and Terry got thrown in with guilt by association and misunderstanding of what was being said, not that it makes it right. So, Terry, I am very sorry.


I do want to set the record straight. Terry has never once lied to me and I do consider her a friend. It is part of the reason it took me so long to post what I did, because I knew including ABATE included Terry and she did not deserve to be part of my rant and from her reply, neither did ABATE. So again, I apologize, and I will do what I can to fix it.

[THoward]

Thank you Christi, I consider you a friend as well!

[bornwildnfree]

Received in a FB post from Deb Craig who works for ABATE. It has some good info in it so I thought I would share:


Deb: It is definitely difficult to rescind a tax. This is a 'tax' that you, as motorcyclists, are paying for. No one else pays for it. The original intent of the legislation was to make training available and affordable. Terry already addressed most of your comments but you may want to take it from someone who has been involved with this project since the beginning in 1990. The MOST program is NOT meeting the intent of the original legislation and has come right out and said they do not have to because they can't find it written -- they should look at the older rules (the ones that were in effect before the bureaucracy made it their goal to totally corrupt the program). I have a copy so I'm sure they do too. In fact, I know they do because I emailed a copy to Glenn. We went in to the legislature in a later year (I'd have to look up the exact year) and asked them to increase the fees so that the subsidy to the student could be increased. This was a VOLUNTARY surcharge requested by motorcyclists FOR motorcyclists. Yes, there are associated administrative costs and the legislation accounted for that but because the word "subsidy" isn't in legislation, MOST feels they don't have to give it and can use the fees for anything they want.


Christi: What if motorcyclists today are more concerned about awareness and could care less about making getting a rebate or making training affordable? I know the program was originally started to make motorcycle training in Colorado affordable but what if the priorities of today's rider have changed? The feedback I'm getting from a lot of riders is, "What rebate, who cares, they need to do more about awareness...where's the commercials, the billboards, the public awareness campaign?"


Deb: First of all, Christi, not all motorcyclists feel that way. Yes, they want awareness and safety -- which, by the way was also built into the original rules and has been increased over the years -- but if you don't think they care about the rebate, come sit on the phone with me one day and listen to the price shoppers wanting a class. I can't tell you how many times a day I hear "can you give me a discount?", "your competitor is only charging____", "I can't come up with that kind of money right now", "I'm going to have to cancel my class because I/my spouse lost my job" (or otherwise can't afford it), etc., etc.. As you may, or may not know, all summer long we ran heavily discounted classes in the more economically depressed areas of the state and many students there STILL had trouble coming up with the money. So I know first hand the rebate DOES matter. There were times in the past, the class was discounted as much as $150, although the average was around $75. Now it's $35 and ONLY for testing classes -- no continuing training. MOST should be renamed MOLT (Motorcycle Operator License Testing). Safety and awareness should, and has always until recently, included continuing education. Next year, there will be NO rebate from what we are being told. The next logical step will be for vendors (training companies) to increase their prices which will definitely decrease the number of people who will register for training.