Enforcement to increase for off-road vehicles - Ruidoso News

The act defines an Off-Highway Vehicle as any motorized vehicle designed specifically for off-highway travel, including all-terrain vehicles , snowmobiles, dirt bikes and go-carts. State residents are required to register all Off-Highway Motor Vehicles through the Motor Vehicle Division if the vehicles will be operated on public lands.

[George]

I think this wrong why else go to the forests I mean come on this is bull I love to ride my quad what about trails and dirt roads are those off limits to

[JustSayNo]

Well, I go into the national forest for exactly the same reason I have been going to 30+ years... to ride the horses and give them the conditioning & schooling only distance riding can give.

I have no objection to off road vehicles. All of the riders have been very courteous to myself.

But I question why the laws would demand that we register and pay tax on every horse we own, yet not do the same for off road vehicles.

Isn't it fair that if livestock are registered with the state and taxed the same should apply to ATV's?

( Personally I'd like to see all the taxes and registrations done away with.. but oh, well - misery loves company ;-))

[Incognito]

You have to register and pay taxes on your horses? I have never heard that!

[JustSayNo]

Yes. Insane isn't it.

All livestock must be registered with the state and all livestock are taxed.

I asked the folks in Zozo how on earth they expected people to keep such records. Cattle can die on ranch land, calves are born then die. The head count changes at such a rapid rate that it's virtually impossible to say - to an exact number - how many animals you have at any given time.

Horses die, horses are born, foal die when they are 3 days, 3 months, etc... to have to keep reporting all of this to a government office is sheer lunacy.

But the powers that be hired folks - provided them new trucks - and they cruise around looking for unregistered animals whose owners owe taxes on them.

The brand inspector now has to report the movement of each animal.. not just for ownership verification, not just to make sure they have the correct inoculations & health certificates... but to make sure they are taxed animals.

*Sigh*

So when you pass a field of cows or horses you are looking at tax payers. Now I want to know if they can vote.

;-)

Isn't there a poem around somewhere about the government taxing your asses?

*Grin*

[Incognito]

When I was a kid we had a ranch in Texas. We had cattle and horses and never paid taxes on them. That is ludicrous! I had no idea it was that way here. You are so right about cattle and horses dying any ol' time.
You are right, I will now look at them as taxpayers. I would love for them to vote. I mean Mickey voted this past election, why not your cow? lol
I have even more respect for you NM ranchers now. You poor things are being robbed by the goverment.
Has this always been the case here?
A "brand inspector"? Are you kidding? Goes right along with all the "czars" we now have. What a waste of our money.

[JustSayNo]

The tax law came in right around 2002. There was a group of us going to fight it.. but not enough to make an impact, and it's statewide. That's a LOT of revenue.

We have a LOT of brand inspectors here. I suspect we have 3 or 4 in Lincoln County and they are normally real nice chaps who do a pretty good job of stopping livestock rustling.

We have always been a brand inspection state.

Texas isn't a brand inspection state, Colorado is. Arizona is. If caught transporting animals out of the county without a brand inspection certificate on EACH animal law enforcement will confiscate all the animals, and your vehicle - and your trailer..

It's serious, serious business.

A temporary brand inspection certificate is $15 or so. A permanent brand inspection certificate is $40 or so.

If a rancher is moving out, say, 200 head of mother cows that a chunk of change.

Then you have to have a health certificate as well of the brand inspection certificate. You can add another $45 onto the fee.

I have not inquired when the fine is pertaining to the tax. I didn't dare. I was already getting hot under the collar about the tax and didn't want to start singing "take this tax and shove it." I suspect the government confiscate your land. That's the way it normally goes.
Try not paying Lincoln County Waste and see how fast your property lands on the steps of the court house being auctioned off.
*Rolleyes*

[Incognito]

Are those figures you gave, per cow??? OMG! How do you ever make any money? I'll say it again, that's ludicrous!

[JustSayNo]

That is the rate for horses.. I have not bought brand inspection certificates for other livestock in a lot of years but they are usually comparable.

[Incognito]

Awful! Highway robbery, if you ask me. I was planning on getting a horse for my kids soon, now I will rethink it. Thanks for all the information, albeit depressing.

[Wonder]

Cost over a $1 per cow to move them out of your pasture. Always has. Called tax. Ranchers have paid taxes on livestock since I don't know when. That is why ranchers get mad when the treehuggers say they are grazing public lands for free. Because they pay permit fees, they pay to have improvements done and they pay taxes on their happy New Mexico Cows. Lincoln County has a high tax amount paid by ranchers into the coffers.

We pay lease for the state lands which goes to fund the schools. We also pay permits in the forest which goes to fund the efforts to keep the Public OFF the Public lands. YOUR favo forest dude wants you to pay for the Forest and like it but by God not go TO the Forest cuz it belongs to the Public. Get it? Meaning the government who is trying to get cattle off the BLM and the Forest which will drop the tax base but will *gasp* cause yet MORE government employees who will suck off the same tit. Or teat as we ranchers delicately put it.

[Condescending Libs]

I'm all for less taxes and less government.

Regarding grazing on public lands: one issue I would like resolved is old barbed-wire fence lines in the White Mountain wilderness areas.

These areas haven't been used for cattle grazing for many years, yet the old fence lines [many of which are collapsing or are in disrepair] remain. They should be removed, in my opinion.

[JustSayNo]

Wonder wrote:

Cost over a $1 per cow to move them out of your pasture. Always has. Called tax. Ranchers have paid taxes on livestock since I don't know when. That is why ranchers get mad when the treehuggers say they are grazing public lands for free. Because they pay permit fees, they pay to have improvements done and they pay taxes on their happy New Mexico Cows. Lincoln County has a high tax amount paid by ranchers into the coffers.
We pay lease for the state lands which goes to fund the schools. We also pay permits in the forest which goes to fund the efforts to keep the Public OFF the Public lands. YOUR favo forest dude wants you to pay for the Forest and like it but by God not go TO the Forest cuz it belongs to the Public. Get it? Meaning the government who is trying to get cattle off the BLM and the Forest which will drop the tax base but will *gasp* cause yet MORE government employees who will suck off the same tit. Or teat as we ranchers delicately put it.

But even when you have the BLM or National Forest grazing permits you are solely responsible for maintaining water holes ( for wildlife as well ass your own domestic stock) and fence lines, and in some area's even the access roads.

So the costs to maintain the acreage costs make the grazing fee's pale by comparison.

There are always many separate and individual fee's coming in from the same acreage. A rancher may have the grazing permit but there are still recreational permits issued.. and they are still part of hunting districts, where hunting permits are issued.

The person holding the grazing permit usually finds themselves responsible for cleaning up after the others, repairing damages etc AND acting as the bounty hunter catching the poachers.(There are LOTS of poachers in Lincoln County and the cost of supporting them is horrendous.)

I managed a grazing permit in Capitan Gap decades ago - 30+ years ago - and I got so sick and tired of babysitting out of state hunters that I would frequently flood the road to give them something to do while I went about my business.

As long as they were spinning wheels digging themselves further in to a mud hole I knew they were not damaging fenceline, setting fire to grassland, shooting the horses or getting drunk and doing all three.

Now I've gone and admitted my sordid past.*G*

[Sunny]

How funny! I don't blame you a bit. My dad raised us like good boy/girl scouts and every time we went camping or hiking we picked up trash along the trails and policed our campsite. We had to leave every spot we were in better then we found it so I spent many an hour of my childhood cleaning up after people with no regard for the wilderness or those that would follow them.