Plan To Raise Docking Fee From Current $100 Has Newport Beach Boat Owners Up In Arms

[stopbush]

Newport Beach, CA, is the wealthiest city per capita in the USA. Fully 25% of residents earn over $200,000 a year, while the average home is worth over $1MM.

But residents who are boat owners are up in arms because the NB City Council is thinking about raising the fee for docking their yachts and floating cities from a flat yearly fee of $100 to a fee based on the amount of space their boat takes up while sitting at the dock. The poor, oppressed 1%!!!!

Note that these boats are docked in state-owned waters.


Newport residents threaten boat parade boycott over fee increase

City Council tonight will consider fee increase for resident dock owners in Newport Harbor; residents say increase is too high.


By DEEPA BHARATH / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

NEWPORT BEACH – A group claiming to represent 1,200 residential dock owners in Newport Harbor is threatening to boycott this year's Christmas boat parade if the City Council on Wednesday night approves an increase in fees for dock owners. Stop the Dock Tax Chairman Bob McCaffrey said Monday that "the harbor will be dark" for the 104th annual Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade.


"Each year, we voluntarily spend thousands of dollars to lavishly decorate our homes and boats in holiday tradition," he said.

The city is proposing to increase the rent for residential docks that use public tidelands from a flat $100 yearly fee to 52.5 cents per square foot, according to a staff report. The rent will apply to the dock and float area, waters of the internal slip and dockable or useable waters around the float. City officials have maintained that this is not a tax, but rent that is collected for the use of public tidelands. Council members have also reiterated that the funds will be used for harbor improvements.

McCaffrey said the new fee increase, in some cases, will be a 3,000 percent hike.

"This is an unncessary money grab and we can't take it anymore," he said. "The money we use to decorate our homes will have to be used to pay the new tax."

http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-378878-residential-fee.html

[msanthrope]

1. Cry me a fuckin' river...nt

[NYC_SKP]

2. I am shocked, shocked I tell you.

I thought from the subject line that the fee was for overnight berthing. This would be a bargain for a ski-boat for a one month fee, but for a one year fee for a yacht it's a joke.

Who pays for this in reality?

All the people without yachts, the 99%.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Yep. And I bet you have to KNOW someone to get a space.

Otherwise it was a 10 year wait.

That's how it was in Chicago.

Repigs don't like free market solutions when THEY have to pay.

[Politicalboi]

3. Boo Hoo

Poor babies. It must be rough just coming up with the $100 dollars.

[BlueMan Votes]

5. so cancel the stupid parade.

it'll probably save the city some money, anyway.

[MineralMan]

6. You should see what marina docking fees are here in Minnesota.

Uff da! Those folks are getting off super cheap.

[LiberalFighter]

11. You should send them what it costs in MN to them.

That way the people suggesting the increase can shove it up the asses of the boat owners.

[MineralMan]

12. They can go look that up themselves. For that matter,

they can check marina docking rates right there in California. A flat rate of $100 is way too low. In most places, it's priced by the length of the boat. Hell, I'd pay $100 a year to dock my little 12' aluminum boat, just so I didn't have to trailer it and launch it. The time it would save me would be more than worth it. I'd be sitting right next to someone's 60' sailboat, I'm sure.

[Smilo]

7. $100 a year - but they use that to light

their cigars. What is the council thinking of.

Money-grabbing greedy bastards. Hopefully the council will stand up to them.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. What resources are being used by these boats that the city needs to recoup?

The slips and boats are already taxed as property.

[sarcasmo]

9. Rich folks mad about a hundred bucks, thanks for the laugh.

[CBGLuthier]

16. read it again.

They currently pay 100. They are claiming that the increase could be as much as 3000%.

So for some the cost will be as much as $3000. That does seem just a bit of a stiff increase if it is correct. They are not complaining about one hundred they are complaining about three thousand.

Hey i want to soak the rich as much as the next guy but that is one hell of a fucking increase to make all at once. Assuming the figures as stated are accurate.

[EOTE]

19. Yes, as much as $3000 to dock their massive yacht.

They never should have had a fixed $100 fee to begin with. Anyone who would receive a massive increase should not have been paying such a paltry sum to begin with.

[dballance]

10. I can't believe this is NOT from the Onion

The representative for the opposition actually said:

"This is an unncessary money grab and we can't take it anymore," he said. "The money we use to decorate our homes will have to be used to pay the new tax."

So you might have to skimp on holiday decorations so the municipality can collect some funds to improve the harbor????

Well that's just a damned shame.

[Canuckistanian]

13. OMG, they've even got a website

http://www.stopthedocktax.com/

Fancy graphics, donation page, feedback page...

The damn website probably cost more that $100.

[pinboy3niner]

15. It costs more than $100 for an annual auto parking permit there

http://www.newportbeachca.gov/index.aspx?page=499

[HangOnKids]

21. The website is shit!

But boo-hoo-hoo these rich fuckers can't decorate their boats for the drunken flotilla, as we called it back in the day! Bob is an asshole BTW, he used to be my neighbor in Laguna Beach.

[mike_c]

14. why, I'll dock my boat in CANADA, dammit!

[EX500rider]

17. I don't think some of you are reading this right..

...this is a fee/tax on their own private docks behind their homes, not marina fees.

[LiberalAndProud]

18. On public tidelands.

I pay property taxes on private property. Why should they not pay rent for public property? Either way, $100 annual fee is incredibly under-priced, as rents go.

[EX500rider]

20. All docks private or not are built on public land as your land deed ends at the waters edge..

....$100 may be too low but $3000 sounds pretty high.

[LiberalAndProud]

22. I think 56.x cents per sq. foot is exhorbitant.

Which sets it up for failure.

Our legislature got defeated on a measure to increase their salaries because they were trying to almost double them. A more modest request would likely have passed. I think the same psychology is probably at work here. The leap is gigantic.

[SoCalDem]

23. These are the same people who do not bat an eye at spending twice that for dinner

or

thousands for a purse

[cbayer]

24. Hold on a minute. There are many kinds of people in that harbor and many are not rich.

Many people in Southern California live on their boats because they can't afford the rents. Many are close to being homeless. The boats are often very, very basic

If they are unable to afford these increases, they may end up anchoring in areas that are sometimes unsafe and do not have access to fresh water or electricity.

The assumption here that everyone who has a boat or lives on a boat is a rich jerk is just plain bigotry.

[Evasporque]

26. please....google tour the harbor front properties...

each house is in the millions....

[cbayer]

28. Ah, my bad. I didn't realize this was on docks attached to private properties.

I thought it was referring to the public docks where some people live on their boats.

Thanks!

[Evasporque]

25. I own a small sailboat and pay $2500 per season....

No pool...
No exactly secure...
Stinky dead fish and icky bathrooms....

I have to scrape together the money to cover it and the winter storage each year...because I love to sail.

[cbayer]

29. That's really steep.

We anchor throughout the summer (free!) and then take moorings when the rates become ridiculously low in the winter.

When we do go into town, we have to get a guest slip and pay a lot for the kinds of conditions you describe.

So, we go there rarely and stay only a short time.

[Egalitarian Thug]

27. Newport Beach has been scamming the government for decades. Just another group

of greedy bastards that want the taxpayers to keep footing the bill for their benefit.

[taught_me_patience]

30. They actually have a good point. $.52/sqft is nuts

I don't care who you are, a 3,000% fee increase is not really fair.