A new bill before the state legislature would breathe life into a proposal backed by some boating groups—to create an office of boating that would combine the scattered oversight of the state’s recreational boating programs and help promote an industry that produces about $100 million annually in tax revenues.

Michael Campbell, executive director of the Northwest Marine Trade Association, proposed the office of boating as a way to improve state services on the water, reduce government red tape and waste, and better promote recreational boating across Washington.

“We’ve been floating a trial balloon that this could work, but we don’t have proof,” Campbell said about the proposed new agency. “We are looking to the legislature to give the green light to really quantify if there are cost savings and an opportunity to serve boaters better.”

But others worry a state agency for boating would simply add an expensive and frustrating new layer of bureaucracy on the water.

The proposal to take a serious look at creating a new state boating agency is just one piece of a larger bill that would lay the groundwork for a significant overhaul of boating programs and facilities across Washington. The bill would authorize a two-year study that would also provide specific recommendations and cost estimates for projects ranging from improving boater education programs and beefing up law enforcement to building boat ramps and replacing bathrooms.

The measure would not provide any additional funding for boating-related programs this year. But backers believe it would set the stage for improving services and facilities when the state’s budget recovers from the economic downturn.

The bill is being pushed by the Washington Boat Alliance, a group of boating-related organizations that have combined forces to increase their clout in Olympia. The group officially formed last year, but was born out of an earlier effort to create a mandatory boater education license program in Washington.
Studying whether an office of boating makes sense is perhaps the highest-profile piece of the legislation. It would require state officials to look at the effectiveness of the Oregon State Marine Board, a one-stop shop for that state’s boating education and marine law enforcement efforts.

Currently in Washington, at least seven state agencies are involved in collecting and spending boating-related money, from the State Parks and Recreation Commission to the Department of Revenue. Under this system, boating-related issues tend to get lost among the many and sometimes competing priorities in those agencies, Campbell said.

Boating-related fees, taxes and grants bring nearly $100 million into Washington’s state coffers annually. That includes boat registration fees, fishing licenses and boat fuel and sales taxes, among other sources.
But there is no single agency that coordinates how that money is spent, leading to a hodgepodge of efforts that sometime overlap or leave gaps in service.

The current bill represents a victory for the boating alliance. Earlier this month, it scrambled to beat back a proposal by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs to redirect some federal funding from boater education programs into law enforcement efforts.

The two groups met last week and hammered out an agreement to support the revised bill instead.
If the current bill passes, the new study will build on a 2007 survey of boaters that concluded the state needed to improve boating programs and facilities and address coordination among state agencies.

“Getting this study done is our number one item,” said Jim King, lobbyist for the Recreational Boating Association of Washington, a member of the alliance. “This is the foundation we need to get more investment in our boating community.”

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