Barton & Loguidice Senior Managing Community Planner Jayme Berschard addresses audience at Boat User Fee Public Meeting (August 15, 2023)
Chautauqua County will begin looking into the feasibility and legality of instituting a boat user fee for Chautauqua Lake.
About two dozen people attended a public meeting about the next steps that will be taken in regards to the user fee that would be used to fund maintenance and improvements to the Lake.
County Executive PJ Wendel said the hope is to raise $2.5 to $3 million dollars to fund the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance (The Alliance), who then would distribute those funds to lake organizations.
Barton & Loguidice Senior Managing Community Planner Jayme Berschard said the number one priority is to determine whether the county can even put a boat user fee in place.
She said while there are examples of boat user fees in Lake George and Saratoga Lake, the issue hasn’t been looked at comprehensively in New York State, “And that we do understand that local government home rule power brings into account the matters of state concern. So, in that regards, we do know to some degree that this boat user fee idea would likely need to be granted by the state legislature. We know that based on the current form of regulatory framework.”
Barton & Loguidice, who had been originally contracted with by the county to look at the possibility of creating a Chautauqua Lake tax district, will lead this new investigation. Wendel said there was money leftover in the $50,000 contract to continue this new route.
Barton & Loguidice will, over the next six months, estimate boat user data, talk to political leaders and stakeholders, and present a final report in Spring 2024. A second public meeting would then be scheduled to report out on the findings.
Wendel said the county is not set on putting a boat user fee in place and is just investigating the options at this point, “I can look every one of you in the face. I have not made a decision to this. That’s why we’ve employed Barton & Loguidice. We started with the Lake Taxing District. We understood and listened to people’s response. Now we’re moving and we’re going to pivot in this next direction. But I can tell you this, my commitment is to work collaboratively for that lake. A unified effort has been my position since day one. That lake brings in a lot of money.”
The video of the public meeting will be posted on chqgov.com/chqlake and comments and questions can be submitted to chqlake@chqgov.com.
Raising revenue to support lake health from those who use the lake is a good idea. My question is, to what extent will the costs of administration and enforcement cut into the amount of money that can be raised? In other words, will it still be worth it? Many will go along voluntarily, but what about the scofflaws?