04-11-2013, 03:37 AM
[quote mtncat1]hey (gemcityslayer) if it's good for wyoming to charge 30 dollars to utans to use a utah/wyoming lake.utah it's only fare that if a wyoming boater wants to use the utah side of the lake ie. lucerne they should pay the 30 bucks too. we in utah pay high instate taxes to pay for our mussel program why should we have to pay extra to wyoming too.after all wyoming caused the burbot problem now we are paying for that also![mad][/quote]
First of all, Wyoming did not cause the burbot problem. A state can't put fish in a bucket and dump them in another lake. That was done by people and we have no idea what state they came from...(not that it matters). I don't know what exactly you mean by "now we are paying for that also!". Really? What are you paying? To my knowledge the illegal introduction of burbot has no monetary costs to speak of yet. (Besides a couple of research projects on burbot in the gorge... which are relatively cheap)
I don't think it is an issue of "using" one side of the lake or the other. I think it comes down to where you launch your boat. I would have no issue with Utah charging Wyoming residents 30.00$ in AIS fee's to launch on the Utah side of the lake. What they want to do, is up to them. That is the beautiful thing about our state government system. Not every state has to do exactly what their neighboring states are doing.
If you want an explanation why it makes sense to charge out of state boaters 30.00$ (more than Wyoming residents are charged) The reason is simple: Look at the AIS program like an insurance program. It insures (hopefully) that no Wyoming body of water will be infected by aquatic invasive species. It is not much different than automobile insurance, or any other kind of insurance. The fact of that matter is, if you are a terrible driver and get in multiple car accidents every year and get multiple speeding tickets... you are a big risk and your insurance cost is going to reflect that. You pay more than the good drivers who never get into car accidents or get speeding tickets. (Is that a simple enough concept to understand?).
Wyoming does not have any AIS problems yet. That means those of us who are residents of Wyoming and rarely or never fish states with AIS problems... have very little or zero chance of moving mussels. By definition, boaters coming from states that do have AIS problems pose a significantly greater risk to our waters. This is very similar to the car insurance analogy... If you are a bigger risk, you pay more.
Pretty simple concept. We don't charge you 30.00$ extra willy nilly just to piss you off. There is actually a good reason for it. I believe there are AIS problems in Nevada and Arizona ... and I'm sure a good number of people from those states bring their boats to Utah waters... it makes sense to me then that Utah should be doing exactly the same thing Wyoming is doing... Make those who pose a greater threat to the resource pay more.
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First of all, Wyoming did not cause the burbot problem. A state can't put fish in a bucket and dump them in another lake. That was done by people and we have no idea what state they came from...(not that it matters). I don't know what exactly you mean by "now we are paying for that also!". Really? What are you paying? To my knowledge the illegal introduction of burbot has no monetary costs to speak of yet. (Besides a couple of research projects on burbot in the gorge... which are relatively cheap)
I don't think it is an issue of "using" one side of the lake or the other. I think it comes down to where you launch your boat. I would have no issue with Utah charging Wyoming residents 30.00$ in AIS fee's to launch on the Utah side of the lake. What they want to do, is up to them. That is the beautiful thing about our state government system. Not every state has to do exactly what their neighboring states are doing.
If you want an explanation why it makes sense to charge out of state boaters 30.00$ (more than Wyoming residents are charged) The reason is simple: Look at the AIS program like an insurance program. It insures (hopefully) that no Wyoming body of water will be infected by aquatic invasive species. It is not much different than automobile insurance, or any other kind of insurance. The fact of that matter is, if you are a terrible driver and get in multiple car accidents every year and get multiple speeding tickets... you are a big risk and your insurance cost is going to reflect that. You pay more than the good drivers who never get into car accidents or get speeding tickets. (Is that a simple enough concept to understand?).
Wyoming does not have any AIS problems yet. That means those of us who are residents of Wyoming and rarely or never fish states with AIS problems... have very little or zero chance of moving mussels. By definition, boaters coming from states that do have AIS problems pose a significantly greater risk to our waters. This is very similar to the car insurance analogy... If you are a bigger risk, you pay more.
Pretty simple concept. We don't charge you 30.00$ extra willy nilly just to piss you off. There is actually a good reason for it. I believe there are AIS problems in Nevada and Arizona ... and I'm sure a good number of people from those states bring their boats to Utah waters... it makes sense to me then that Utah should be doing exactly the same thing Wyoming is doing... Make those who pose a greater threat to the resource pay more.
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