
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994                   TAG: 9403220082
SECTION: BOAT SHOW                    PAGE: BS-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SAFETY FUNDS THREATENED

Boaters are expressing concern over the Clinton administration's 1995 budget proposal to wipe out the $32 million that annually has been going to states for boating safety and law enforcement efforts.

The administration has proposed to stop transferring to states the federal fuel-taxes funds paid by recreational boaters. For the past decade, these funds have been placed in the Aquatic Resources (Wallop/Breaux) Trust Fund and transferred to Virginia and other states for boating programs that stress safety and search and rescue.

Most of the boating safety work is done by the states, rather than federal agencies, such as the U.S. Coast Guard. Virginia's boating program already has been operating $2 million in the red.

"Now is not the time to be penny wise and pound foolish," said Richard Schwartz, president of the nearly 500,000-member BOAT/U.S. He pointed out that the nation's boating fatality rate has been cut in half since the cooperative federal-state program was launched a decade ago.

"This program is absolutely essential to the safety of 11 million recreational boat owners," he said.

by CNB