We Have Work To Do

by Steve Panten
ABATE of Wisconsin had a great “Annual Meeting” weekend in Green Bay in October. This is an enjoyable, low key weekend with our brothers and sisters. I say low key because I don’t have much going on for the weekend other than enjoy what the organizers put together. I know it is a lot of work putting this weekend together so I would like to thank Dawn and everyone that helped her. It was a great weekend.

This weekend ends with the annual meeting of the membership on Sunday where the ABATE election results are given and where the Legislative Committee sets our agenda for the next year. First let’s talk about the election results. I want to thank everyone that ran for an elected position knowing the commitment that comes with it. I am humbled to report that I was re-elected to represent the organization as a Board of Director, and I was also reappointed as Chair of your Legislative Committee. I appreciate the confidence that the Board and the membership has in me and I will try not to let you down.

Now on to the Legislative Agenda. I may be biased but I think this is the most important part of the weekend. By having an open discussion about what we want to accomplish and how we are going to do it, we are setting the stage for Lobby Day 2021. This was a great opportunity for members to join in on the discussion and offer their input in how we should move the agenda forward.

Let’s talk about what was decided.
Autonomous and Connected Vehicles: This is a major topic for us. What we are learning from Damon’s position on the steering committee, and what is happening in other areas is troubling to say the least. The fact that the NHTSA representative on the committee says that when they are developing testing models, “motorcycles are considered but not prioritized”. With the failures of the technology not recognizing motorcycles, are we going to be forced off the road, or at the very least certain highways? In Sweden they are talking about banning motorcycles from roads all together. In California the Governor is banning all internal combustion engines by 2035. It appears that technology and policies are bringing an end to motorcycling as we know it. They can try doing this in other areas of the country and the world but ABATE of Wisconsin and the 350,000 licensed motorcyclists in the state, are not going down without a fight.
Profiling of motorcyclists: We started on this in 2020 but ran out of time. We are looking for the State Legislature to pass a joint resolution condemning this action and creating an avenue for better training and policies. We have been collecting information from motorcyclists across the state who feel that they have been profiled and we will continue to develop this pattern of evidence to make a stronger case for legislation, should the resolution not stop the practice. In the state of Wisconsin, motorcyclists should feel comfortable moving around without the fear of being stopped because of what we are driving or the clothes we are wearing.

Paddle wheel raffles: We are hoping to have discussions with the legislature and the governor’s office about legalizing a paddle wheel raffle for all organizations in the state. This bill affects more than just the way we try to raise money at our events, so we will be looking for partners to join us. You may recall that in 2020 there was a bill that passed the Senate and the Assembly unanimously but was vetoed by the Governor. Let’s try for a different result by having open discussions early.

Road construction funding: In 2020 there was a piece of legislation drafted that would take a percentage of sales tax from vehicles sales, repairs and service and put in a fund specifically for road construction projects. This bill was killed very early on and never had a Public Hearing. We are not looking to draft this legislation, but we would like our elected officials know that we would support it.

Other things…. because that’s not enough.
E15: Continue to make sure that gas containing 10% or less ethanol is available at all gas stations. We lost the battle with Kwik Trip last year, but we did get language that E10 or less must be available at all gas stations unless they have a 4-gallon minimum purchase sign on the pumps. Now, I know the last part of that sentence doesn’t make sense, but you can blame the EPA for that one. We will have to watch that stations are complying with this, especially if they have multi-fuel dispensing nozzles on the pumps. Something that I think we need to watch for is when the ONE pump that dispenses E10 or less is out of order. Is the station still open even though they operating out of compliance of state law?

Motorcycle awareness training in on-line drivers training classes: Do you know someone that took their drivers ed class on-line? Did you happen to notice if they had the required 30 minutes of motorcycle awareness training included? We are going try to collect that information to make sure that new drivers are being properly trained on how to watch for motorcycles. With schools shutting down we are not able to get into as many classrooms to present our Share The Road program so ensuring that this is included in the curriculum should be a priority for us. We worked hard for many years to make this law, so let’s not allow this to be skipped by some out-of-state software company that developed a program.

This is a pretty aggressive legislative agenda, and we are going to have to do battle with some big players. Are you ready to do your part? It’s all going to start with Lobby Day. Hopefully during this election time, you got to know the candidates so when they are in Madison, they will recognize you. I will be looking at historic legislative calendars and hopefully pick a day that the legislature is in session for our Lobby Day. They don’t typically come out with the schedule until sometime in January and that will be too late to reserve busses and the room at Inn on the Park so we will be rolling the dice for this one.

One final thing about our Annual Meeting Weekend. The weekend highlight is the awards and recognition part of the Saturday night banquet. There are so many people in this organization that deserve to be recognized for what they do, sometimes I wonder how people can pick just one person. I was humbled to receive the Executive Directors Award from Chubby this year. Nobody in this volunteer organization does what we do for awards, so when your name is called you wonder why you. None of us would be able to do anything without the support of the membership. I am fortunate to have a great committee behind me to keep me focused and on track.

At this year’s Legislative Committee meeting I told the story about having a meeting with Legislators, the DOT, the bill drafter and other interested parties- and we were coming up with a bill draft that I thought was not perfect, but still a good piece of legislation. I took it to the Legislative Committee and presented it to them saying that after a 2-hour meeting to get the draft that we have, this is the best that we are going to get. The Committee told me it was not good enough. They told me to go back and do better. We needed to have a bill that would be right for the motorcyclists in Wisconsin. 5-ish years later we passed an autocycle bill that was recognized by the Motorcycle Riders Foundation as the correct way to draft that piece of legislation. All because ABATE’s Legislative Committee pushed me to stand up to Polaris and to the Senator who told me to accept the bill draft that came out of that meeting, because it was the best that we were going to get. Thank you to everyone that was at that meeting for not letting us settle. We did it right and we will continue to do it right for all the motorcyclists in the State of Wisconsin.

That’s it.
Steve