The reason snowmobiling is dwindling as a sport is because the startup cost is huge and it is a HASSLE to go in Washington State.
You're partially right. I've only been here in WA 2 years and the first year, it was kind of a hassle..........and expensive. Didn't quite understand the sled tags/snopark pass/discover pass deal yet, but that was easy to figure out.
The BIG killer is the cost of admission in WA with regards to USE TAX. I had to drop $1200 just to register 2 used sleds that I already owned! If I didn't make darn good money that would have been a deal breaker.
So yeah, sled tabs are cheap, but the real reason there are so many people running un-registered sleds is because you gotta pay a left nut to get them registered the first time!
Heck I'm one of those "unregistered" guys right now. I bought 3 tabs last fall for the 3 machines. Have put about 300 mi on each of them this year. Mid season I bought a new used sled from OR and sold my sled to a guy in OR.
Knowing that I'm moving this spring, no way in he!! I was going to give the state of WA another $1000+ to get a sled registered. What to do? Go down to the dmv, tell 'em you lost the stickers on your other sled (the sold one, gone out of state) and for $9 you get some new stickers.
Just another reason there are less people riding.
There are tons of good used machines in the $2-3k range that a guy or family could get into snowmobiling with, no problem. But that guy who is putting out, to him, a large sum of $, say $10k, to buy a couple, 2, 3 sleds and a trailer to haul up there behind the old family truckster is going to think twice about it when he realizes that there's a 10% "penalty" to be paid to the state just so he can enjoy his hard earned purchase. $1000 is alot of money to alot of people and WA is killing the snowmobile experience for the average guy.
And there's no break on the taxable value of the sled either (unless you luck out and find one of the shady dmv offices). You get dinged full retail value for that machine unless you can "prove" it is worth less with mechanics' recepits or an appraisal or something ridiculous. So there again, someone who has a a head on their shoulders and some wrenches can't even buy a "fixer upper" for cheap without getting dinged for more than it's worth.
You can say that it all balances out because WA has no state income tax, but that's a crock. It doesn't balance out. I own homes and property in 3 different states right now and have lived, worked and owned homes in several other states and aside from Illinois which is eastern California, none cost as much $ to the state as here. My CO house, same price range as the house here, property taxes are only about 25% of here. I can tell you that what I save in state income tax on my base salary is far less than what I spend on property tax here. Sales tax, about double of most states as well.
And some of these states have some dang good world class snowmobiling. Why should we pay extra to ride in the rain and cascade concrete?
There should be MORE snowmobilers here than other mountain states with the higher wage rates here, but the fact is, people have less money at the end of the day after the state gets done with them here than alot of other states.
That said, again, I love what WA has to offer for outdoors activities, mountains, etc and raising the registrations to get more grooming is a good thing, but if the rest of the costs don't get under control, then sled registrations will continue to decline.
