Please forward this to your friends (boating or not) and take action now!

Each State legislative session some legislator files a bill trying to change the boat excise tax system.

This year, Rep. Geoff Diehl of Whitman has proposed the bill in the form of an Amendment to the House Budget.  This means it could be lumped with a bunch of other Amendments without proper attention to its negative impact on boating affordability.

To add insult to injury, the proposed text refers to making people pay more for “the privilege of using the waterways of the Commonwealth” when navigating the tidelands is a Public Trust Right granted to the people before we were even a Commonwealth by that monarchist King George.

Please take three minutes to make three phone calls saying “don’t support Amendment #710 in the House budget’.

  1. Call your Representative where you vote. Identify yourself as a constituent.  Check here if in doubt.
  2. Call Speaker DeLeo:  617-722-2500 (or Robert.DeLeo@mahouse.gov). The person taking the message will ask you if you’ve told your own Representative yet, so do that first.
  3. Call Rep. Geoff Diehl:  617-722-2810 (or Geoff.Diehl@mahouse.gov).  Your call to him should say “withdraw your Amendment”.

Read the full text of the ammendment