More than 30 years ago, Idaho's boaters, snowmobilers, dirt-bikers and ATV riders made a deal: They'd give up their gas tax refunds for gas burned off-road if the state would direct that tax money to trails, boat launches and the like. It worked. While farmers and log-truck drivers still get refunds for gas taxes paid on gas that actually gets burned off-road, off-road recreationists don't, but they benefit from $4.8 million a year that goes to waterways improvements, off-road trails, park roads and bridges and search and rescue.

Now, however, a session-ending deal between lawmakers and Gov. Butch Otter to divert that gas tax money to road maintenance has the recreationists steamed. "If they want to take that back, then give us the refunds back," said Tom Crimmins, a Hayden Lake trails consultant and retired forester. And if the state needs more money for road work, he said, it should raise the gas tax. Crimmins spoke out at the last state Parks Board meeting in Boise, and motorized recreation groups around the state are organizing to oppose the funding deal. "There's going to be some petition drives, we'll probably have some bumper stickers and buttons," Crimmins said. And when a special legislative task force starts meeting later this summer to address possible alternative funding sources for parks and for the Idaho State Police, which also would lose millions in gas tax funding a year from now under the deal, "We plan to be there en masse," Crimmins said.

The recreationists are particularly upset because during this year's legislative session, they successfully worked to raise their own ATV registration fees from $10 to $12 a year. The increase, which takes effect Jan. 1, will go half to law enforcement, and half to the state Department of Lands, to offset any damage caused by off-road recreation on state lands.

"I think they have a legitimate concern," said state Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, one of eight members of the special legislative task force. Hammond said when he voted for the road deal, he wasn't aware of the history behind the trail funding. "At that point in the session, you're almost willing to vote for anything to get out of there," he said. "Now we have to face the fact that we have some real issues that we created as a result of that, and we've got to fix it. It's going to be tough." You can read my full story here in today's Spokesman-Review; the legislative task force holds its first meeting June 30.

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