As has been discussed, the most important news in Indiana is that snowmobile and atv's no longer have a personal property tax (ppt). Indiana residents, please register your sleds in Indiana. The trails will be gone if we don't.

Other noteworthy news:

- Although the Potowatamie trail is no longer state funded, it appears that it will be open to paying members only. Check back for more details.

- The snowmobile hotline for the state of Indiana is gone. It costs too much to keep the phone line for the entire year, just to be used for a couple short months. To check if a trail is open you can go to www.indianasnowmobilers.com, which will have links to specific trails for updates. The current Buffalo Run Trail Report now has a link to it from the ISA website. The hotline will be working next season, but it will only have a message on it directing you to ISA's website for trail information. After next season it will be shut down.

- An Indiana resident who was ticketed last season for riding in Indiana, living in Indiana, but having his sled registered in Michigan, took his case to court last week. He lost and was fined $250 by the judge. The enforcement officer stated that repeat offenders can have their sled impounded. What's really bad, is the $250 will not go to the DNR snowmobile fund. 95% of it will go to the county general fund and the remainder will go to the DNR for processing the paperwork.



- Boating update (I'm posting this because it seems that a lot of us sledders also have boats). There has been much discussion on the news lately about DNR enforcement on registering boats in Michigan. I ran into our local DNR enforcement officer today on the lake and asked him to clarify the law.
-You can have your boat registered in Michigan, unless you keep it docked in Indiana for more than 59 days. If you rent a dock or lake property for more than 59 days then it is presumed your boat is docked in Indiana and you MUST pay the Indiana excise tax.
-You can have your boat registered in Michigan, unless you keep your boat stored in Indiana for more than 21 days. So, if you keep your boat at your house, make sure you claim that it has only been there for a week, then you're ok. If you get stopped on the lake, inform the LEO that you store the boat in Michigan and you'll be ok. Don't store your boat in Indiana for the winter in the open. If an LEO notices it sitting in Indiana all winter and wants to enforce it, you'll get a ticket if it's registered out of state and you haven't paid any excise tax.
-Your boat trailer MUST be registered in Indiana no matter what.


Tony

excellent info tony,we are not sure if the potawatomi trails will be a trail permit system yet or not if we can get money together through fund raising efforts it will still be free for anyone to ride.we are still trying to get a handle on the DNR ticket info because it will be all private property there may only be sherrif department patrol only,wich we will govern.todd 1-260-316-2839.

Thanks for the update Todd. Keep us informed! We're routing for ya.

Tony

Where is this info located? My local assesor is still charging me personal property tax on my sleds.

The PPT will end in 2009. So you will no longer have to pay then. Until then, sorry you're still screwed! HOWEVER... by then if more Indiana riders do not register their sleds in Indiana the money coffer for trail set up and maintenance will be gone. They will finish out this two year contract and after that it will go year by year depending on the money available. EVERYONE needs to get the word out that everyone needs to help keep these trails open. Indiana needs to research how Michigan does it to keep all their trails open and then do it the same way.