NOVA Program Proposed Changes

[Grumpy]

To: People interested in the Recreation and Conservation Funding Board’s Nonhighway and Off-Road Vehicle Activities Program
From: Jim Fox, Special Assistant to the Director
Greg Lovelady, Applied Planning Manager
Subject: Proposed Changes ~ Nonhighway and Off-Road Vehicle Activities Program Fund Allocation Policies



Summary
The Recreation and Conservation Funding Board (RCFB) is seeking comments regarding proposed revisions to the Nonhighway and Off-Road Vehicle Activities Program (NOVA) to modify the process used to allocate funds to the various program categories.

The Board does not intend to change the policy regarding how gasoline tax and permit fees are allocated to the off-road vehicle (ORV) category. However, RCFB is considering changes in the allocation process for:
1. Unobligated funds from previous grant cycles
2. Competitive dollars
3. Excess funds from one or more categories in a current grant cycle
4. The proportion of funds reserved for the second year grant cycle in the three NOVA Recreation categories.

Background
The current NOVA allocation formula was adopted by the Legislature in 2004 (Figure 1). In September of the same year, the RCFB adopted the allocation policies in NOVA Policy Manual 14. These policies address the order that fuel tax and ORV permit dollars are distributed to the Off-Road Vehicle (ORV), Nonmotorized (NM) and Nonhighway Road (NHR) categories, collectively referred to as the three NOVA Recreation categories in the remainder of this memo. The Board’s policies also address how excess and unobligated funds are distributed to the three categories.


Figure 1

Since the RCFB adopted the current allocation policies in 2004, it has found that unobligated NOVA funds carried forward to the next biennium are at risk of being diverted by the legislature to other programs. The Board is seeking ways to maximize the use of funds in a current biennium and minimize the risk of funds being diverted, while still funding the highest priority projects in each NOVA category.

Currently the Board allocates NOVA fuel tax and ORV permit funds in the following order. First, 30 percent of fuel tax dollars are awarded to the top ranked projects in the Education and Enforcement (E&E) category. Then 30 percent of the remaining 70 percent is distributed to top-ranked projects in each of the three NOVA Recreation categories. The remaining ten percent of the NOVA Recreation dollars are designated by the Board as “competitiveâ€