The Two Most Important Days of the Year

by Steve Panten

You often hear us say that Lobby Day is the most important day of the year for motorcyclists in the state of Wisconsin – because it is! The second most important day would have to be ABATE’s Annual meeting because that is where we set our Legislative Agenda for the upcoming year. What is important to the motorcyclists in the state and what do we need to do to protect our rights? The agenda that we develop can be things that we need to take to Lobby Day because they are topics that we need Legislative help to develop, or they can just be things that we need to address within the motorcycle community.

Protecting our ability to purchase equipment with a fuel source that we feel is proper for what we need is still a very important issue for us. We will be having discussions in Madison on how we can overcome the resistance that we received from those that did not support our bills, including the Governor. Those conversations will be started soon so we can determine the best way to approach this topic. We will need the support of many other groups, so part of our discussions is how to reach them.

We will again start conversations on how to protect a vehicle owners’ privacy by not allowing vehicle manufacturers to collect and sell the information about where we drive and where we stop. You might recall that in 2017 we had an Assembly and a Senate bill (AB254 and SB196) that would have done just that, but it never made it out of committee. One reason that it did not was because Ford brought in their Lobbyist from Washington DC, along with their lawyers and IT directors from Detroit to testify against it. At the time they testified that they do not collect data and have no interest it in selling to third parties. Well, I guess things have changed and now the executives at Ford realize that we were correct in our testimony when we said that information about how and where a person travels, is worth more than the vehicle itself.

Senator Stroebel approached us over the Summer and asked us to bring this back because he met with executives from Ford, and they said that they are selling the information they collect, and it is worth more than the vehicle itself. Imagine that! We will start having meetings in Madison to find Legislators to help us redraft the same legislation that we had in 2017 and we will try again. Another reason that they stated they were opposed to our bills was because they would have to develop new software to be included in vehicles sold in Wisconsin. The European Union does not allow vehicle manufacturers to collect and sell an individual’s information, so the software change is already there! This is a consumer protection bill protecting a person’s privacy. The information in your vehicle’s computer should be treated the same as information in your home computer. That is your information and if someone wants to collect that information, they will need permission or a court order.

We will always work to protect our ability to purchase the only fuel that we can legally use in our vehicles by ensuring E10 or less is always available. We are going to watch for any new legislation that could lead us to losing that fuel, like we did when we opposed 2023 LRB-4240/1. Right now, it looks like we were successful in stopping this piece of legislation that would have mandated that all new gas stations install fuel tanks capable of dispensing E25. Why would the Legislature want that unless they were planning on mandating that in the future?

We are going to continue to be vigilant on collecting information on instances where motorcyclists are being profiled by any law enforcement agency. We know that it is happening in many areas of the state, and we have had success working with those departments to prevent them from continuing that practice. But still, we have problems. Recently, a few people in motorcycle attire were stopped from entering Harvest Fest at State Fair Park while security made them remove their vests so they can be searched. This is a clear example of profiling since nobody else in line needed to remove their jackets.

ABATE of Wisconsin has a profiling complaint form on the home page of our website if you feel as though you were profiled by a government agency like this. This can be anonymous but we do ask you to complete all your personal information so we can reach out if there are more questions or we need you to come with us to testify in Madison. In order to protect your information, I am the only one that will see these if you send them to the email address on the form, motorcycleprofiling@gmail.com.

So, these are the things that we are taking to our Lobby Day which will be held on February 22nd in 2024. We are already working on getting the buses set up, and the meeting space at the hotel is already booked. There is plenty of time for you to adjust your life so you can be available to join us in February. Motorcycling as we know it is in jeopardy and we can make a difference if we get motorcyclists to show up on the most important day for motorcyclists in the State of Wisconsin.

One more thing, well actually two. First, this year at the Annual Meeting we got a chance to hear from Mike Scwhendau from the State Department of Transportation about how they analyze all crashes, but most importantly what they learned about motorcycle fatalities. This was a very open discussion, and we appreciate Mike for taking the time on a Saturday to share very important information with us.

And finally….I think. I was very surprised to receive an extremely amazing gift from members at the meeting. I was gifted a flag that was flown over the Capitol during last year’s Lobby Day. The flag was requested from Senator Wimberger by Duke, and I am grateful for the gift. It’s humbling to receive recognition for something that could not be done without the support of so many. Like we say during our Grassroot Lobbying Training meetings, all I can do is give a legislator information, but it is you as a constituent, that can influence the Legislator to support it on your behalf. Thank you, Duke, and everyone that was involved in this. I truly appreciate it.

That’s it…

Steve