Let’s be blunt.
No one could argue that Long Island Lake landowners shouldn’t be seething as their mill rates have nearly doubled this spring.
And what’s helping fuel that anger is that Westlock County didn’t do a good job of letting them know about the change.
But, and there always is one, it’s hard not to side with every other county ratepayer who essentially subsidized the lifestyles of a few through a sketchy sweetheart deal that saw Long Island Lake landowners get a tax break over the past few decades.
The original deal, which saw landowners receiving a special tax rate, was problematic no matter how you spin it.
So, how could a new one be crafted? One couldn’t.
If landowners said to the county, “We won’t join Larkspur if you give us a lower tax rate,” then that’s tantamount to blackmail.
If the county said to landowners, “We’ll give you a lower tax rate if you don’t join Larkspur,” then that’s pretty much the textbook definition of coercion.
Furthermore, why should the landowners around the lake get a lower tax rate? Residential land tax has long been based on the value of the property, not the use of the property. So a lot of people who own property there don’t live there full time … so what?
Flip the coin. Should everyone get a tax break when they go on holidays?
Furthermore, some of the threats made by the landowners at Tuesday’s county council meeting don’t seem very-well considered.
Claims that the area should become a hamlet, and receive that elevated level of service seem somewhat half baked.
Sure, if residents banded together to become a hamlet they would get water and sewer service — maybe, eventually — but rest assured the same people complaining about this recent increase would get hit with special levies to pay for the required capital expenditures.
Water and sewer pipes aren’t cheap.
Ultimately we can appreciate the frustration of Long Island Lake landowners, we really can.
But the cat’s out of the bag, the genie is out of the bottle and there’s no going back.
