It should not came as a surprise to anyone that the United Bikers of Maine is pushing to have Maine taxpayers pay for their causes again. They have been doing it for a long time.

The UBM’s call for a recount of the seat belt referendum ballots will cost Maine taxpayers about $40,000, if approved by the Maine secretary of state. The UBM will not get the bill for the recount they want. You and I will.

But you and I have been getting other bills from UBM; those medical bills for motorcyclists injured for a lack of helmets. The bikers’ group has fought long, hard and successfully against a mandatory helmet law in this state, at a cost to all of us of millions of dollars.

In a large 1991 study of crashes on Maine roads, it was calculated that “the estimated potential savings (in hospitals and long-trem care facility charges) from wearing a helmet for those (injured motoryclists) reported as not wearing a helmet was $1 million.”

A million dollars in one year in extra medical costs because of lack of helmets; we all helped pay that million dollars in potentially avoidable medical costs, through our medical insurance rates, our taxes, and our hospital bills.

So, what is another $40,000 for the rest of us to pay? To UBM, nothing; they don’t have to pay for it.

I don’t object to the UBM asking for a recount on the seat belt referendum, although as a co-chair of the Maine Safety Belt Coalition, I would not have asked for a recount if Maine voters had vetoed mandatory seat belts on Nov. 7.

I don’t object to motorcycles either. I used to own and ride one.

I don’t even object to motorcyclists riding without helmets.

I do object to paying; for unnecessary injuries, and for unnecessary referendum recounts.

If the United Bikers of Maine wants a recount of the seat belt law, let them pay for it, all $40,000. Not one red cent should come out of our pockets to pay for their recount. After all, we are already paying $1 million a year.

And let’s up the ante for them; if the recount affirms passage of mandatory seat belts, let’s tell Maine voters that lack of helmets is costing them at least a million bucks a year and then put a mandatory helmet bill on the next November ballot.

I don’t think we would need a recount on that one. Erik N. Steele, D.O. Bangor