Nebraska Legislative Update

by Dan Nitzel

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA -- This last year, two bills were proposed before the legislature that could have had dramatic positive impacts on ATV and dirtbike recreation in Nebraska.  Both positive bills have been stopped in committee. 

          One bill was LB-721.  It  was proposed to require that ATV and dirtbike owners pay their sales taxes at the county court house instead of at the dealer.  Thanks for the hard work from StarCity Motorsports owner Robert Kay who worked extensively with Senator Raikes who sponsored the bill.  Robert pushed to amend LB-721 to provide a way to raise funds for ATV and dirtbike trails in our state.   However, LB-721 did not make it out of committee as there was considerable opposition from agriculture interest groups. 

          Agricultural groups such as the Farm Bureau and the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association opposed LB-721 as they felt that it would impose another un-needed fee upon their members.  Their views are that farmers and ranchers do not need trails.  They feel that farmers and ranchers seldom, if ever, use an ATV for recreation.  Unlike those who live in cities, rural residents enjoy virtually un-restricted riding of ATVs on public streets, roads and highways.  They are able to do this as long as they say they are doing farm or ranch work.   

          The other bill, LB-617 is tabled in committee and is pretty much dead.  According to the primary sponsor, Senator LeRoy Louden of Ellsworth, LB-617 was introduced to amend the Nebraska Recreational Liability Act.  The amendment would allow for private land owners to collect up to $15,000 per year in lease payments on land used for recreation and the fee's charged (up to $15,000) would not have been  considered a charge or fee under the Recreational Liability Act. 

          Currently, if a land owner charges a fee or lease for recreation on his or her land, the land owner and the recreational activity is not covered by the Nebraska Recreational Liability Act. This means that recreational users can sue land owners for an injury if the person using their land is charged a fee for the privilege of being invited on to private or public property for recreational purposes.

          Private and public land owner liability has been a big road block in Nebraska to land owners wanting to open their land up for recreation and be able to charge users a fee to cover their expenses. This bill may have encouraged more land owners to open their land up for recreation.

          LB-617 was a good bill and ATV and dirtbike enthusiasts did support it.  It would have enhanced our chances of finding new places to ride in the private sector. 

          Instead, the judiciary committee sent another bill LB-620 to the legislature.  While recreational groups like our own was originally in the bill, LB-620 as amended to exclude recreational groups like our own that could have been benefited.   Now, LB-620 only allows land owners to receive from groups and other government subdivisions “habitat improvement payments” for recreational or wildlife benefits and be shielded from liability.  Motorized recreation would not be acceptable.

          It’s pretty clear that motorized recreation is getting the proverbial shaft from our state legislature and we need to try to do something about it!    If it were not for our good fortune of having our state’s public power agencies who are not under the control of the Governor and legislature, and if it were not for the Federal Government, we would have no place to ride in our state.  Will our state legislature ever get to the point were family based ATV and dirtbike recreation may be welcomed?  Right now, it appears very unlikely.  However, we need to, and we will, keep hanging in there and pestering our legislators to help us so we can help ourselves! 

           This is what YOU can DO!  Keep on writing your State Senator.  Better yet, support a new Senator who may be interested in helping us.  Change is in the wind in the legislature.  With term limits on our state legislators about ready to take effect in 2007, there will be a lot of fresh blood in the state house.  This is going to bring on a lot of new thinking.  With this new thinking, we may be able to find someone to listen to us! 

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This page was updated on Tuesday, August 01, 2006