CONCORD, NH – New Hampshire will continue to require motorcycle safety inspections on an annual basis, after a bill that would have stretched inspections to every two years was tabled in committee with no hope of action this legislative session.
Republican-sponsored HB553 would have made motorcycle inspections biannual. A number of groups opposed it, including the Department of Safety, AAA-Northern New England, the New Hampshire Motorcyclist Rights Organization (NHMRO), and the New Hampshire Auto Dealers Association (NHADA), which also represents powersports dealers in the state.
The House Transportation Committee recommended that the bill be “laid upon the table,” virtually killing it for the balance of the 2017 session. When the full House voted March 9, the vote was 246-96 against the bill.
NHADA credited members George Mullin of Souhegan Valley Motorsports in Milford, Curt Grenier of Naults Powersports in Manchester, and Norman Martineau of Rochester Motorsports Inc. in Rochester, who testified against the bill and contributed expertise.
The state does not set inspection rates, but says inspections typically cost about $20 to $50 per bike. The proposed change, according to a nonpartisan legislative analysis, would have reduced highway revenue that is sent back to municipalities in the form of block grants. “The Department of Safety states current [annual] inspection revenue generated from motorcycle inspections is $240,533. Ten percent of motorcycles registered each year are new; therefore, reductions in revenue ($216,480) would be in the following fiscal year (FY 2019) of this bill’s passage, and every other fiscal year thereafter,” according to the analysis. “Therefore, this bill would result in a decrease in state highway fund expenditures and local revenues of $25,978 ($216,480 x 0.12) every other year beginning in FY 2020.”