The Massachusetts Marine Trades Association is applauding Gov. Deval Patrick and the legislature for including a provision in the final version of the 2013 state budget that allows the use of one license plate on any trailer owned by a boatbuilder or repairer transporting vessels on public roads.
Introduced during the House budget debate by state Rep. Daniel Winslow, the amendment also was embraced by Sens. Anthony Petruccelli, Bruce Tarr and Daniel Wolf, and ultimately by the governor and Rachel Kaprelian, the state’s registrar of motor vehicles, the trade group said.
Before the trailer amendment was signed into law, marine businesses were required to register every trailer used to transport boats on public roads. The trade group said the process was costly, duplicative and detrimental to boating businesses statewide, the majority of which are small, family-owned operations.
“Thanks to the collective efforts of state leaders, those in the business of building and repairing boats in Massachusetts have one less financial hurdle to overcome as they endeavor to continue operating in the most challenging economic environment in recent history,” the trade group said in a statement.
Going forward, boatbuilders and repairers will no longer have to register multiple trailers. Instead, they will be allowed to maintain one transferable plate.
“The trailer amendment is a terrific example of what can be accomplished by our elected officials when partisanship is set aside and a common sense approach is applied for the common good,” trade group president Jack Kent III said in a statement.
“Massachusetts marine businesses confront the everyday reality of being surrounded by the extremely boat-tax friendly states of Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Any relief is deeply appreciated by the commonwealth’s boating industry.”
