FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MMA Files Complaint concerning Motorcycle Safety Fund
On Thursday September 2, 2010 the Massachusetts Motorcycle Association (MMA) filed a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, specifically Governor Deval Patrick, Secretary of Transportation Jeffery Mullan, and Registrar of Motor Vehicles Rachael Kaprelian in regard to the Massachusetts Motorcycle Safety Fund.
The complaint requests that the court order the defendants to conduct an accounting of all monies derived from motorcycle registrations by Massachusetts General Law (MGL) Chapter 90 Section 34 for each of the calendar years 2000 through 2010. Additionally, the complaint requests that the court order the defendants to reinstate those monies to the Motorcycle Safety Fund.
"It's a shame it had to come to this,” stated MMA Chairman Dave Condon, "but we were left no choice. Numerous inquiries concerning this issue were made by MMA Board Members to state officials which all fell on deaf ears." Condon continued, "Our number one mission is to protect the motorcyclists of this state; this is their money and we will not back down on this. Now it's up to the courts to decide."
As previously reported, the MMA first became aware of money being removed from our safety fund in January of this year, when Governor Patrick eliminated the line item from the state budget under his Transportation Reform Act and placed the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) under the direction of the Department of Transportation (DOT). On January 6, 2010 the MMA met with officials from the registry of Motor Vehicles to voice our concerns; it was a meeting that produced no concrete results. Since then, the MMA has on numerous occasions requested follow-up meetings with both the Governor's Office and the officials from the Department of Transportation. All requests to date have been ignored.
Recently, through communications received from the RMV, it became quite clear that the situation has gotten much worse and there is a true possibility they are considering very limited to no funding at all for the Motorcycle Safety Fund. For example, the MMA was recently invited to participate with RMV officials in establishing a “realistic budget” for the fund. The MMA Board Members voted unanimously that as far as we were concerned there is a budget already established by state law: the sum of $2.00 dollars per motorcycle registration per year. It was further agreed by the MMA Board that for us to participate in such discussions would be hypocritical and that until this matter is resolved, we would only then be willing to discuss how such money should be spent to benefit the Motorcyclists of Massachusetts.
"This is ridiculous," stated Condon, "there is a state law on the books that defines what is the ‘sole’ purpose that this money is to be used for, and the governor is choosing to ignore that law. How come he can just arbitrarily ignore a law and it's called ‘reform’? If I chose to ignore a law it would be called a ‘crime’ and I would have to pay the state imposed penalties for that!"
The MMA will keep its members and the general riding public updated on this situation as it moves through the courts. For more information please contact chairman@massmotorcycle.org or visit http://www.massmotorcycle.org.