Here is an email I got from NYSORVA today.
We have a very, very short window — probably inside two weeks from today — to get our State Senators and Assembly Members to insist to the Legislative leadership and the Governor that the State Budget must include Trail Program legislation. The State Budget is expected to be passed on April 1 — and this is probably our last chance to get our Trail Program to use the fee increase imposed in 2005.
As of a visit to the Legislature today to talk to staff, we have a strong indication that the Budget will likely contain an acceptable negotiated form of the ATV Program proposal — as long as enough statements of support are issued by Legislators. All off-road riders must show a united front now. However, if we fail to make enough of an impression on the leadership in Albany, we risk having the Program entirely stripped from the Budget.
We want to ask you personally to make a special effort at this critical moment. Here are some steps you can take to spread the word and activate your members and riding friends:
1) Pass along the auto-letter-generator email (copied below) to your members’ e-mail list.
ARRA was generous to have put this together for us on short notice and we want to make the most of it within the coming two critical weeks.
2) If you have a web site, please prominently post this link
http://www.arra-access.com/campaign/NYATVTrailSystem/ to the auto-letter-generator with at least a minimum explanation “Write your Senator and Assemblymember — You Want Trails!” or use the test from the ARRA e-mail below.
3) For your members without e-mail, please provide the attached form letter (two copies each) for them to sign and mail AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to their Senator and Assembly member. Help them determine the names and addresses for their representatives (you can edit the addresses in using the MS Word version of the file).
For a easy tool to get this information, see
http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm where you can enter a ZIP code to determine anyone’s State Senate/Assembly member contact info.
4) Using the info gathered above, ask your members to call their Senate and Assembly representatives in Albany to express the simple request that the Budget must contain an ATV Program to spend our Trail Fund money on TRAILS.
5) If there is anything creative that you can think of to do locally, which could be useful in reaching our goals, we encourage you to take the initiative. Such as: contact your local newspaper and TV outlets, gather a rally, set up meetings with Legislators for groups of your members, and ask you COUNTY Legislators to contact State Legislators in support of a Trail Program.
Remember, green/anti-access groups with their deep pockets will be doing all their usual worst while we try to do our best on a shoestring. We must stack the desks of our Legislators high with our letters and messages so they know our opinion is backed by real numbers. The simple for/against tally counts for a lot in the end, and we need to be strongly ahead in that count.
Finally, it is no exaggeration that this is quite possibly our last chance to get Trail Program legislation passed in this decade. Political winds in NY State are shifting in a way that we do not believe is going to be any good for the future of getting major pro-ATV legislation passed for a very long time. To underscore how difficult this process has been, realize that it has taken since 1993 — when NYSORVA promoted the first Trail Fund/Program bill — to get to get our legislative agenda to this critical point. So we must all act in concert now — waiting until 2019 for another chance is not an option.
