NC Towing again, call the Speaker of the House

[Baitcatcher]

Please read this especially if you are NOT from NC. The Governor vetoed the bill as expected. Please call to let Speaker Hackney know you are watching this bill to determine if you will be coming to NC for vacation. If you can't bring your boat, you won't be coming. Request a special session be called to override the veto. If you are from NC please call also and request they override the veto. Call the office of Speaker of the House Joe Hackneys office at 919 733 3451. Give them your name, where you are from and a phone number in case they want to contact you. Below is some information including the Governor's lame excuse. People have been towing boats this size for years with very few accidents. It takes less than 5 minutes to make the phone call.

Thanks,
Doug


North Carolina General Assembly - Governor's Veto of House Bill 2167 (2007-2008 Session) (http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2007/H2167Veto/H2167Veto.html)

Please call Speaker of the House, Rep. Joe Hackney's office. Identify who you are and why this issue is of importance to you. Ask him to support a special session/override vote on House Bill 2167.

Message:

The current law has created an atmosphere that will cause significant economic damage to businesses in NC.

Boaters simply will bypass North Carolina for fear of a $500+ ticket for breaking a law that few will understand. All the boaters will know is to stay away.

The boating related industries and tourism in NC are already suffering due to current business and economic conditions.

A special session is needed to pass HB 2167 to stop this damaging perception before it goes any farther. Fall fishing tournaments and tourism will suffer if this issue is delayed until next session.

This is a boating access issue.

Contacts: email: Joeh@ncleg.net; Capitol office: 919-733-3451; Chapel Hill district office: 919-929-0323.

Contact Senator Marc Basnight's office and offer a work of thanks for his willingness to call a special session to override this veto and for his past support of Rep. Arthur Williams' bill H 2167. Contact: Raleigh Office- (919) 733-6854



Contact Rep. Arthur Williams (919) 733-5906 and Senator Clark Jenkins (919) 715-3040 thanking them for their continued support on H. 2167.



Contact your personal Representative and Senator's office if they are not listed above. Let them know that you are a constituent Ask them to support a special session and to vote for an override of the Governor's veto of House Bill 2167. You can find out your representatives by using this link. Get you nine-digit zip code off of you driver's license. North Carolina General Assembly - NCGA - Representation (http://www.ncleg.net/GIS/RandR07/Representation.html)

[Joker]

If the alcohol limit were reduced would the bill pass?

[Reel Draggin Tackle]

Why did they include an increased alcohol limit? In this day/age I suggest it was doomed from the start!

[Capt Crunch]

Nice signature on the governor's veto letter. Does Governor Easley hold an ink pen in his toes or in his teeth when he writes?

[jtb67]

Called Hackney's office and they referred me to the Gov.'s office. Called Gov.'s office and the lady was a B-I-T-C-H!!!!!! that is with a capital B by the way. Bad attitude as one could get and said it was vetoed end of discussion. NC has lost its way on alot of things such as beach access, saltwater license w/o a boat license option like they enjoy here in VA and now this towing BS. Been thinking real hard about getting a house in Avon, now I'm second gessing it w/ the way NC is acting about alot of things. I read the Gov's response about the veto and he didn't mention the alcohol part of the bill, just the 9 1/2' boats on narrow roads. I got a feeling drunk drivers have killed maybe a couple more people in NC than 9 1/2' boats. As for me, I'm towing my 9'3" GW Gulfstream to NC when I choose too and let the chips fall where they may.

[gooosehunter]

What a bunch of idiots running that state.. It is pretty clear the government in Raleigh do not care about what is going on in NE NC. The tourism will be brought to a screaming halt over the gas prices combined with the restrictions on trailors in their state.

And we wonder why one of their counties in now bankrupt and about to be taken over by the feds.

Dave

[tutt]

I fish the N.C. rivers and deal with tourist traffic every weekend. If it has slowed down, I sure haven't noticed.

[flatlander]

Here's the latest story about the towing bill in the Raleigh Paper. I truly hate it for boaters coming to NC. But you see, we do have the shortbus commuters running the state.

newsobserver.com | Boaters: Towing law too stringent (http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1195770.html)



Boaters: Towing law too stringent
N.C.'s stance puts sportsmen on edge
Bruce Siceloff and Benjamin Niolet, Staff Writers
Comment on this story

Todd Korker and his Florida teammates won $14,500 in prizes last fall at a king mackerel fishing tournament in Atlantic Beach. The next day, they lost $1,950 in fines in Wilmington, when a state trooper held their boat for six hours on the shoulder of U.S. 17 because it was too wide.
Korker had run afoul of a highway safety law that some boaters say has been ignored -- safely -- for decades.

The General Assembly returns to Raleigh today to consider Gov. Mike Easley's veto of legislation, inspired partly by Korker's misadventure, that would make it easier for drivers to haul wide boats down narrow state roads, day and night. If lawmakers override Easley's veto, it would be a first in North Carolina history.

North Carolina and other Southeastern states put restrictions on fishermen and others who tow boats and trailers more than 8 1/2 feet wide. Korker's 33-foot-long Hydra-Sports boat was about 10 feet wide, and he didn't have the permits.

His story spread quickly on the Internet and alarmed sportsmen across the South. Suddenly North Carolina had a reputation, in some circles, as unfriendly to boaters.

That was a serious issue in a state with 370,000 registered boats and an estimated 25,000 boating industry jobs.

By early summer, legislators were citing Korker's $1,950 ticket and endorsing Tar Heel boater complaints that state troopers were enforcing an unneeded law.

With little debate, the General Assembly approved a bill to allow boats as wide as 10 feet on state roads by day, and as wide as 9 feet at night. The measure roared through the House and Senate by a combined margin of 151 to 5.

Easley and the Highway Patrol say the bill poses a safety threat, and they say troopers have ticketed only a handful of violators. Proponents of the bill say the governor's veto threatens North Carolina tourism and manufacturing jobs.

"We've been towing these boats -- 8 1/2 feet, 9 1/2 feet wide -- my entire life, without incident," said Robin Parker of Beaufort, 34, marketing director for Parker Marine Enterprises. Her family company, with 170 employees, built about 700 boats last year. Parker and other boat builders lobbied legislators this summer to relax the width limits.

"If these people cannot tow their boats any more, then it will be easier for them to pick up a set of golf clubs than to buy a boat," Parker said.

It's the law, but ...

Neighboring states have highway laws to limit boat widths -- but, unlike North Carolina, they don't enforce them, said Jack Holmes of St. Augustine, Fla., who runs the 10,000-member Southern Kingfish Association.

Holmes said his group decided against staging its year-end king mackerel tournament in North Carolina. About 40 percent of the boats that usually take part in regional competition would be in violation of North Carolina's width limits, he said.

"We won't even consider North Carolina at this point, because our fishermen wouldn't have it," Holmes said. "The fishermen sit there and tell you, 'We ain't going -- we ain't paying those big fines.' "

Korker, a cable television executive in Jupiter, Fla., is captain of a competitive team that has claimed $130,000 in fishing prizes in recent years, according to information on its Web site, teamhardway.com. North Carolina records indicate that some or all of his charges were dismissed in January. Korker could not be reached for comment.

Lt. Everett Clendenin, a spokesman for the Highway Patrol, acknowledged that boats have been involved in only a few accidents in recent years. He said there has been no widespread crackdown on boaters.

State troopers spend most of their time pursuing speeders, impaired drivers and others who pose dangers on the road, he said. Out of more than 900,000 tickets issued by the Highway Patrol across the state in 2007, Korker's was one of only five tickets that involved drivers towing wide boats without the required permits, he said.

"We laugh when they say we're targeting boaters," Clendenin said. "That's ridiculous. We're too busy with other things.

"We're proud of the fact that there's not been a lot of collisions [involving wide boats]. We believe it's because the law as it's currently written is enforced."

Seth Effron, an Easley spokesman, said the governor would support a compromise bill requiring that drivers not haul wide boats at night, be limited to a .04 blood alcohol level and be at least 18 years old. Easley flew to Denver on Monday to attend his first-ever Democratic National Convention.

Legislature unbending

There was little indication Tuesday that House and Senate members -- including Democrats called home early from the Denver convention -- were ready to change their minds.

A spokesman for House Speaker Joe Hackney -- who was expected to catch a late flight Tuesday from Denver to Raleigh -- said negotiations were continuing with Easley's office.

Rep. George Cleveland, a retired Marine and Jacksonville Republican, said he had never realized until this year that he might be breaking a state law when he hauls his own fishing boat to the beach.

"It's a law that has been on the books for quite some time, and they just started enforcing it this past year," Cleveland said. He said his colleagues in New Hanover and Brunswick counties told him that Highway Patrol enforcement has cut participation in fishing tournaments.

"The governor's rationale, I think, is extremely weak. ... I think anyone who's hauling a $40,000 boat behind them has better sense than to take their boat down a road that's too narrow to haul it.

"I'm positive there's the votes to override the governor's veto," Cleveland said. "My feeling is we're going to go in and do the deed and go home."


bruce.siceloff@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4527

[foxwind]

I say---- TOW IT!! I have yet to see or hear about a problem in the Outer Banks. There might have been a incident or two down further south with the King Fishers. They know they do not have a leg to stand on. I tow a 36' Contender with a 10' 2" beam and get no looks by the local cops or highway patrol. I tow down there 12+ times a year from Virginia. I have been towing a over wide boat down to OI for 5+ years with out any problems. This is a truley political thing. They will recend this bill because of the pressure. If you are not acting like a dumba$$, they will leave you alone. Just my opinion. Does anyone have a story of a ticket towing a overwide boat to Oregon Inlet or Hatteras??????? I would like to hear about it.