ATV Association Says Agricultural Vehicles Should Pay Registration Fee

The Wisconsin ATV Association is unhappy about a bill that would exempt agricultural utility vehicles from a state registration fee.

At a hearing on the bill this week, the association’s Randy Hardin said that if approved it would strip the group of close to $170,000 in fees. That moneywould otherwise flow to the state’s segregated account used to pay for trail creation and maintenance.

Hardin said that association already gets $3 million worth of trail project requests that the account can’t pay for. The new bill, he says, would add to that deficit.

Hardin says eliminating the registration requirement will also make it harder for law enforcement to determine which vehicles are properly registered to use ATV trails.

“Should this bill pass … there is no private ag sticker in play,” he says.

Backers of the bill say vehicles that don’t use the ATV trails and operate only on private agricultural land shouldn’t have to pay the registration fee. But Hardin says utility vehicles used for farm work only pay a one-time $15 fee – half of the annual $30 fee ATV users pay to use the trails.