The U.S. Coast Guard is proposing a $26 annual renewal fee for vessel documentation.
Here's the notice published today in the Federal Register. Fair warning: The densely bureaucratic notice is sure to give you a headache.
The Coast Guard says it hasn't adjusted its fees for vessel documentation services since 1993, and needs more revenue to cover its costs.
To my knowledge, the Coast Guard didn't issue a press release or handy Q&A to explain the $26 fee in plain language.
The Coast Guard did, however, see fit to issue a press release about its sponsorship of a musher in the Iditarod sled dog race.
Can they at least give them to us for 5 years? It's a pain to turn that thing in and I don't see what they really get out of it. No changes, just keep your old one.
ReplyDeleteIn plain language, it costs $26 per permit holder to run the vessel documentation program. Such programs are supposed to be revenue neutral - neither earning or losing money.
ReplyDeleteIt is bringing in about half the revenues when compared to expenses.
Pretty straightforward exercise.
What should be of larger concern to folks is the USFWS proposal on the last page of the federal register which starts to go into their proposal to set up criteria to ban lead shot in ammunition. That will be much more of headache in the long run than the renewal fee.
I agree with the first post.Renewing your Documentation every year is a waste of time and money.
ReplyDeleteIn plain language, poster #2 sounds like a Coast Guard thinker. The implication is that as fishermen we wouldn't understand 'normal' language.
ReplyDeleteFrom where I sit, when your costs exceed your expenses, you can either raise revenues OR cut costs.
Perhaps the Coast Guard should look for ways to reduce expenses by finding more efficient ways to administer this costly program. Is an annual renewal for owning a boat really necessary? Why not make owning a boat like owning a house?---where you only updated the paperwork when something actually changes?
This would eliminate the 90% or more of renewals where nothing has changed and it's just an administrative hassle. Presumably this would eliminate 90% of their administrative costs.
I don't understand what is necessary about an annual renewal--seems like excessive regulation to tell the USCG literally nothing most of the time.
Completely agree with 6:32 poster.
ReplyDeleteWe know that some government workers are out of touch with reality. It's common practice for them to shaft the commoners. Happens all the time.
ReplyDeleteLMAO! Squeak about 26 bucks because of,blah,blah and cheap shot the guys that drop you a pump and, or, save your ass in many ways. I spent a considerable portion of my life as commercial fisherman. Being of that ILK, I am disgusted at times by how stupid and low my ILK can be. All you negatives are a sorry lot indeed.
ReplyDelete$26 bucks for nothing. Vessel documentation has nothing to do with rescue service. Get a life. VD is just another wasted squeeze.
ReplyDeleteLets not just talk about it on the blog, talk to the association you pay dues to and get the all rolling on getting this changed. There's defiantly a more efficient way ...
ReplyDeleteThat's the whole point man, the Coast Guard should focus on saving lives--Not enforcing a pointless annual certification that your boat didn't get lengthened that year.
ReplyDeleteThink about it, you buy a car and they give you a title, you buy a house and you get a deed. You don't have to touch it until something changes. But buy a boat, and you'd better make sure to tell them nothing has changed every year, or you're in big trouble. Why not just make people file if they actually change something?
Unless you changed the name of the boat or took it to they shipyard, it's a pointless renewal.
And if you buy a car, do you then buy license tabs?
ReplyDeleteduh, yes you buy tabs but not every year
ReplyDeleteNot even the DMV makes you file every year! That's the point!
ReplyDeletePoor comparison though....the state is tasked with maintaining roads, issuing drivers licenses and IDs etc.
Coast Guard doesn't have to re-pave the ocean. Even if they did, it would serve no purpose for me to tell them I did not lengthen or rename my boat every year.
Why require somebody to file something that says 'nothing changed' every single year.
Difficult read that Fed Register?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Vessel Documentation Biennial User Fee Review, which can be found in the Docket for this rulemaking, the full cost of vessel documentation services for fiscal year 2009 was $11.3 million, while total fees collected totaled $5.3 million, as shown in Table 1. Fees are currently collected for 22 activities associated with vessel documentation that are listed in Table 67.550 of 46 CFR part 67.
Lost $11 million plus?
ReplyDeleteHere's an easy solution:
Stop sending so much paper back and forth every single year, which has to be read and manually input by someone at a desk somewhere. Require vessel owners to notify the USCG when something changes, instead of every year regardless of whether or not something changes.
If it's an absolute necessity that I tell the Coast Guard that I did not lengthen my boat, or change the name, then require the update every 5 years instead of every 12 months.
Watch the cost of the program plummet, and spend the savings on stuff that matters like USCG boats, patrols and saving lives, instead of the inefficient administrative hassle the the annual renewal is today.
If you have to cut, cut where it makes sense. In the meantime, don't threaten fishermen with a $5,000 penalty for failing to tell the coast guard that their boat didn't get sponsoned in any particular year.
That was spent $11 million plus, not lost it.
ReplyDeleteyou are all skating, you don't even need a coast guard license to operate. SHUT THE HELL UP before you piss em off.
ReplyDeleteTabs every year in the state im from......whiners!
ReplyDeleteYeah, your state is trying to make money. Other states have taken the opposite approach and saved money by increasing the number of years between renewals. The CG should do the same!
ReplyDelete