steve wolf

Really? Who comes up with these ridiculous proposals for an obvious money grab? Let's think about the logistics of HB 1477 for a moment. Currently there are only 7 regulated lakes for Moorings with around 5,000 inland mooring permits. (as a comparison there are just 1,200 moorings regulated in coastlal NH). Of course there are thousands more unregulated moorings over the other 993 lakes, So yes HB 1301 raising the mooring fee from $25 a year to $50 might make sense also as a money grab to double revenue (without any cost) and the folks with regulated moorings on our 7 nice big NH Lakes can without a doubt afford another $25/year But heck why not also charge everyone with a fixed or seasonal dock an annual $100 fee too? That would really be an amazing money grab. Here's an interesting consideration, there are probably many more docks then moorings throughout the state. Perhaps tens of thousands? Let's assume 80,000 docks x $100 = $ 8 M! Where does the regulation and taxation end in what was the Live Free or Die State? Back to HB 1477, there are 1,000 lakes and ponds in NH and this bill wants to charge anyone $50 with anything floating attached to a mooring anchor in all 1,000 inland waterbodies? Many folks have their floaties attached to 5 gallon Home Depot buckets filled with concrete. What if there is an average of say 50 floating things (aka seasonal floating platforms) over our 1,000 lakes - that would be 50,000 permits at $50. That raises $2.5 M! However, NH DES would need to hire a bunch of FT folks to administer that kind of bureacurcy. Why not just have a go fund me page or just ask those that so pattionate about taxing people if they wanna donate more of their wealth to NH Lakes and their local lakes association to fund Cynobacteria remidiation rather than paying for fancy buildings, executive dirrectors and other staff.? Please vote to kill HB 1477.