Gov decks yacht clubs’ rent breaks
Gov. Charlie Baker sunk a generous House proposal tucked into the state budget that slashed state rents for yacht clubs on public land.
The governor, returning the budget measure back to lawmakers, said the rent levels they sought would have led to taxpayers never getting fair compensation for the private use of the public land.
The Herald reported this week the proposal would have reduced rents for 21 private yacht and boat clubs along the Charles and Mystic rivers and Boston Harbor by nearly 40 percent or $115,000 total.
For many of the clubs, the rent control — reducing leases to 2015 levels with a 2 percent annual increase afterward — would have saved them thousands of dollars while they already rake in hundreds of thousands in club fees from members.
The Charles River Yacht Club, for example, would have seen its annual payment lowered to $10,200 from the $16,000 it owed for this year. Meanwhile the club reported $254,746 in membership fees just two years ago.
“If rent increases are capped at the amounts specified in the conference report, the amounts paid by these facilities will never reach comparability with market rates,” Baker wrote in his letter to lawmakers rejecting the measure’s language.
Baker amended the proposal to include a 4 percent annual rent increase from current levels — a slight cut from the 5 percent annual increases that club owners said the Department of Conservation and Recreation was seeking in long-term leases.