Senate bill s401

Senate bill s401, the so-called "Marine Fair Use" legislation that recently passed the Senate nearly without debate, is scheduled to begin deliberations in the House this week. Experts predict it will be approved in short order, if by a narrower margin. As it is known to also have strong White House support, experts say that US boaters can expect the new tax to possibly come into effect as early as January 2014. According to a recent and controversial Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post by April Hatch (Daughter or Senator Orrin Hatch), This and "other 'luxury' and 'sin' taxes are being pushed through easily because they affect a relative minority of voters, and thus pose little risk to most Congress members' re-election."

"Owning a boat, and especially a yacht, is proof in and of itself of disposable income," said Kansas Senator Kurt Drieson in recent interviews on both The View and C-SPAN. "They're big toys, and nothing more!" The Senator has, however, previously stated that land-based RV's, and "boats with a real purpose, like fishing or hunting," would not be taxed.

Critics of the law say the bill, sponsored by Drieson, was sloppily written, and contains vague language far too open to interpretation. For example, it's been pointed out on the press that though the law specifically taxes the wetted area of any recreational vessel using federally controlled waterways, its unclear whether the tax for any particular vessel will be applied per year, or per launch, or both. Thus, trailer boats might be charged for each and every launch, and a larger boat may have to keep a "dinghy log" and pay for each time its tender is dropped into the water.

Others point out that with the enforcement of the law likely to fall under the authority of a new agency, which itself is likely to be under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security, the majority of income derived from the program will be used to fund its own infrastructure, and to recruit and train up to 1,200 armed enforcement officers. The only projected net addition to the Federal coffers would be from fines, and a quick check of cyberspace shows it to be abuzz with debate. On line critics saying this scenario ranges from "another case of self-serving bureaucratic bloat," to conspiracists who claim this to be a case of "creating and funding a navy for the police state."

Supporters of the law say that it will make the waterways safer and reduce the environmental impact of recreational boaters, partly by reducing the number of boat owners on the water who cannot afford the fees (and thus are unlikely to purchase proper safety or sanitation equipment), and partly through the encouragement of operator licensing with the incentive of future tax benefits. Experts say that much as with other sin taxes (ie: alcohol and tobacco), the law is designed to discourage what is considered to be a potentially dangerous activity among the poor and uneducated.