Row, Row, Row your boat - but only after you pay the Republican "Dinghy Tax" - Granite Grok

Row, Row, Row your boat – but only after you pay the Republican “Dinghy Tax”

Eldest Kayaking on Gilford MeadowsYup, just like the New Gas tax (get it – New Coke!  New Gas Tax?  Hopefully suffers the same death by embarrassment), now we get a new tax on the boats that “Every Man” can afford.  I certainly can’t afford a 45 foot cruiser for whiling away lazy summer days – but I can afford a canoe, a real dinghy (rowboat), sailboat,or kayak (e.g., anything non-motorized).  But now, yet another Republican NH State Senator (Bob Odell, R-Lempster) is proposing that you pay him $10 for each one you want to launch for a couple of lazy hours on the lake.  I imagine that my Eldest (1 canoe, 2 kayaks) ain’t gonna be happy camper.  Steve had the proper response hereFrom AFP/NH:

New Hampshire (AFP-NH) today called out a new, proposed $10 fee for all small, non-motorized boats such as canoes, kayaks and rowboats. According to today’s Eagle-Tribune, a bill, sponsored by Senator Bob Odell, would establish this new charge on these watercrafts in order to increase funding to the Department of Fish & Game.

“As the old adage goes, if you want more of something, you subsidize it, and if you want less of something, you tax it,” said Greg Moore, AFP-NH State Director. “This new Dinghy Tax would send a clear message that New Hampshire is more interested in growing government than promoting tourism and outdoor activities. Especially for those individuals who might come to our state for the day to row or paddle the Saco or Pemigewasset from Massachusetts, Maine or Vermont, this new tax would rip out the welcome mat, and cost our state millions in lost tourist revenue. This proposal is penny-wise and pound foolish at best and a triumph of short thinking bureaucratic logic.”

 And here are the money line(s) from that Eagle-Tribune piece:

…Hubert and another panel member, Rep. David Kidder, R-New London, said $10 a year is a small price to pay to enjoy the privilege of canoeing, kayaking or boating in New Hampshire. Lempster [er, Odell??  -Skip] could not be reached for comment.

…Kidder said the department’s responsibilities have increased over the years and hunting and fishing license fees are no longer enough to fund expenses for something such as search-and-rescue operations.

To the first point – now, it is a privilege to be allowed to use the State’s resources by its citizens? Do we now see yet another “flipping” of authority here – from where the citizen once just “used” and now The State must be asked for permission?  Who, then, really owns that asset?  We hear the platitudes that “we” own it – but do we really if we cannot be allowed to utilize our ownership at our behest?  That Government is now making itself a firewall between our lakes and rivers. and us?

To the second – once again, we see Government expanding itself.  They admit that the Dept has taken on more and more – how often have we seen this Kabuki play before where some parcel of Government decides to do more, starts to do it, does it for a while, and then reaches back and declares “you need to pay us more!” as ?  Let’s make it more local – how many libraries do more than just lend out books?  They have audio books, they have eBooks (and the Ereaders), have computers for surfing (and don’t complain to Linda Librarian that the kid next to you is watching port – Free Speech and all), game consoles for the kids, videos, speakers, how-to clubs….you get the idea.  And come budget time, the claim is “but people WANT these things”!  Dangle out that freebie!

Back to the Eldest – he’s in the lower economic classes and works a gawdaweful number of hours just to keep his very young family’s head above water – rarely does he get the time to himself to just float around for a couple of hours that rare afternoon that he can go off by himself.

And I have no idea how to tell him that the Party of “lower taxes” is now going to have him pay the State with money he doesn’t have much of to enjoy a bit of time he generally doesn’t have for a bit of enjoyment on the water.

But remember – the State needs that money because the State always is needing to more and more.  Here’s a real case of the State believing it needs a lower income wage earner’s money than he does.  After all, the State is privileged.

Postscript – yes, that is the Eldest, kayaking on land that the Gilford School Board said wasn’t wetlands.  The GSB had decided that it knew better on how to use $8 million of Gilford taxpayers monies than they did – pour it all in to ballfields.  And a part time pool.  Click on the image – it was one of the first blogger “activists” things that GraniteGrok / GilfordGrok ever tried – and yes, we poured a LOT of sand into the gear worx of The Spenders and stopped it cold at that time in 2007:

Video of the “Meadows” where it is being proposed that Gilford create a multi-million dollar sports field complex. I have seen it this way numerous times. This is the first time we had a video camera.

And a sea Kayak.  And a son willing to help.  All we had to do was spend some time on it.  Now, we would have to pay one level of Government for the privilege of fighting another level of government.

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