Future Undecided on State Boating Office

Lobbying from boat owners, including a Ventura man who head a state boating organization, has helped derail a plan by Gov. Pete Wilson to dismantle the state Department of Boating and Waterways.

Assembly members have not included a proposal to cut the 53-employee office in their budget plans, although officials from the California Resources Agency have pledged to continue trying to do away with the obscure office.

“It’s still on the table in that the budget is not yet done for the next fiscal year,” said agency spokesman Andy McLeod. “But it is not in either the Senate or the Assembly budgets at present.

“Regardless of its prospects in the near future,” McLeod said, “our long-term objective remains to streamline state government by eliminating the department.”

But recreational boaters, who said the department recoups more in taxes and fees than it costs to operate, said they would keep up the fight.

“It’s a self-sufficient department,” said Jim Clark, a Ventura Keys boat owner and president of Recreational Boaters of California. “To pursue eliminating the department would be a great disservice to a large constituency of the state’s boaters.”

Wilson proposed doing away with the department earlier this year as part of a larger plan to cut back state bureaucracy. The Department of Boating and Waterways is responsible for administering loans and grants for small harbor projects as well as operating boating safety programs.