Success…and not so much

by Steve Panten

WE DID IT!

In November, the Wisconsin State Assembly voted to move our Autocycle Bill (SB 86) on to the Governor for his signature without any opposition. This is very exciting since earlier this year, the State Senate also passed this unanimously. ABATE of Wisconsin has been very successful in getting our bills passed unanimously and that is a credit to being able to work with everyone in the State Legislature. When it comes to motorcycle rights issues, we do not care which party we are talking to. We need support from everyone to create a safe and enjoyable environment for motorcyclists in the state, and again we proved that we can do that.

Thank you to everyone that worked so diligently on this bill and never gave up. It was tough at times when we kept going back to the legislators trying to get them to encourage all groups to do the right thing and make sure the language was right for the state. In the end we got a great push from both Federal Senators, Johnson and Baldwin, and the Motorcycle Riders Foundation.

Over a year ago Polaris stopped talking to us and would not even return emails. At one point I was not even sure who I should be talking to anyone at Polaris anymore. We took a trip to Washington DC and explained our situation to our Senators. We explained that we were not getting any help on the state level, as the legislators wanted us to work it out ourselves. We said that it is kind of hard to do since Polaris isn’t talking to us and Harley decided to take a “no position” attitude. Our Senators in Washington DC sat down with Polaris and asked them to explain how a vehicle with a steering wheel, gas and brake pedals and a cup holder, can be a motorcycle. Polaris fell back on NHTSA giving it a motorcycle designation since it loosely fell into Federal definition rather than fixing the definition.

While this was going on, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation was talking to Congressman Burgess from Texas and convinced him to draft a letter to NHTSA asking them to re-look at the definition. While these discussions were happening, it was expressed to Polaris that the only reason the Federal Government is getting involved is because they stopped working with ABATE of Wisconsin. Within a month of our meetings in DC, an old familiar face from Polaris reached out to me and said let’s get this done. We finalized language that we could both live with and the rest is history. Bottom line…. the State Legislature decided to not push the issue, so we had to “Biker Up” and take it to the next level. In the end, the State of Wisconsin cleaned up what the definition of a motorcycle should be, and it is all based on the training that you get when you take a training class to get your motorcycle endorsement.

I would like to thank Senator Jacque and Representative Knodl for helping guide this through. We also need to thank the St. Croix Valley riders for their support as well as thank you to the numerous motorcycle clubs that showed up to help us push it. The last step is for the Governor to sign it and I am hopeful that will be done in the beginning of December. WE DID IT!

Another issue that came up fast and needed a quick response to was the push to have E15 included in a multi-fuel dispensing nozzle at the gas pumps. SB 349/AB 382 was written for Kwik Trip by leadership in both the Assembly and the Senate. Kwik Trip was asking for this because they “acquired” (another fancy word for they purchased) 100 gas stations that have pumps with only one handle, and they want to sell E15 out of it. Their goal is to drain the 88 octane fuel tanks and fill them with 88 octane E15 and save the money of replacing the pumps. We do not have a problem with them selling E15 in that octane, but state law prevented them from dispensing any fuel with an ethanol level higher than E10 in a multi-fuel nozzle. I was not there when this current law was written, but it appears that it was written to prevent the scenario that Kwik Trip is looking for.

The EPA says that E15 is not approved for use in motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, ATV/UTV’s, small engines and cars manufactured before 2001. When a consumer uses a multi-fuel nozzle at the pump, they will get a small amount of what the consumer before them purchased, because it is trapped in the hose. One of the arguments we used was that a consumer will unknowingly violate federal regulations by putting E15 in our motorcycle, if that is what the previous person used. OK…that is the background…what happened…. the bill passed the State Senate unanimously even after our testimony in Committee. We were working with Representative Horlacher for a compromise to this issue in his Assembly Committee. What the bill says is that there will always be one pump at every location that has E10 or less for us to use. We said that is unreasonable since owners from every vehicle type that I listed earlier is going to be in line for that one nozzle. What happens if it is out of order? Does the station have to shut down since they are in violation of state law?

In the end Representative Horlacher scheduled a public hearing in his committee. ABATE of Wisconsin sent out a call to action asking our members to send a letter to their Legislators by means of a click on a link provided. I wish I could say that it was successful, and we got our message to Legislators in Madison, but that wasn’t the case. We did not have enough people do the call to action. Be means of using this software I get a report of who sent messages to their Legislators and how many letters were sent to each office. I was stunned by the lack of support that this issue got. Did I tell you I have a list of everyone that actually did it? In the end we gave one final push but Leadership, Representative Steineke in particular, pulled SB 349 from the committee and sent it to the floor for a vote. I had a couple of our “friends” in the Legislature reach out to me to explain the situation. I realized that it was going to pass so I said “we get it…. we lost this one” …. and it passed with no opposition.

In this case we got caught in a game of politics and we did not get enough support from our members, or other groups, to overcome it. When it was all done I had members tell me how easy it was to respond to the call to action but looking at the metrics of how many emails we sent vs how many people opened it and then how many responded, I learned that this issue was not as important to our membership as was explained to the Legislative Committee. We lost. Thank you to everyone that took time out of their day to come to Madison to testify because it was important to them. Thank You to everyone that responded to the call to action. And Thank you to my employer for giving me the time I needed to make trips to Madison, send emails and make phone calls. Because this bill was being fast-tracked, we had to move quickly, and it took a lot of my time at work to do it.

Biker Day at the Capitol is scheduled for January 23rd, 2020. Since next year is an election year, the legislature adjourns in the spring except for special sessions and budget issues, so we picked a day in late January. This is an important day for us because we have people to thank for helping us with our Autocycle Bill and we can give a final push for the Paddlewheel bill as well as introduce a few new things. The buses will be running again, and the schedule is on page 20 in this newsletter. Please take advantage of the free ride and join us for the “Most Important Day of the Year” for motorcyclists. Keep in mind that this is Biker Day, so you do not have to be an ABATE member to join us. You just need to support the issues that we are working on.

One final thing…. this is my last report for 2019. It was a great year for motorcycling free in the state of Wisconsin, even though it seemed a little wet. We have a lot of work to do in 2020 and it won’t be easy, I think we are in a good place to be successful and I am looking forward to working with my brothers and sisters on our agenda. When I get out to meetings and events around the state, I am very excited to see how many dedicated members there are, and there is no question THAT is why we are so successful. I have heard people from other states say that Wisconsin is the best Motorcycle Rights Organization in the country and it’s because of our members. Thank you. Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and enjoy some time with your biological family as well as with your motorcycle family.

That’s it.

Steve