North Carolina Boater's Be Aware

[Hank Kivett]

I found this in the Oriental town paper and if you own a boat in NC then it will affect your pocket book or wallet. "Up at the legislature, the move is on to charge boat owners another fee/tax to finance dredging of NC’s ocean inlets. You may recall that 2 yrs ago, lawmakers passed a big spike in boat registration to pay for that ocean inlet dredging. As was the case with that tax hike 2 years ago on the thousands of boats in Pamlico County, it appears that none of this new tax’s money will come back to dredge anything here.
The Coastal Waterways User Identification Number is what this one’s called. It’ll mean a second line of numbers on boats 24 feet and longer. Got a 24-foot boat? This new fee will set you back $70 or so. A 40-foot boat? $200. Every year. This in addition to that registration tax hike of 2 year ago.
This is now in the Appropriations Bill as the lawmakers draw up the state budget. Boat US says that if passed, this will mean NC charges the most in the country for owning a recreational boat. It’s boat owners to contact their legislators to vote against it. In addition to the 300% increase two years ago the President signed a "waterways" bill last year to increase the dredging. So where is our money going.