When fees are piled on taxes

There must be something in the water elected officials drink. Or maybe it’s something in the air circulated through government buildings.

Whatever the reason, governments at every level can’t seem to get enough tax revenue.

Raising taxes is a veritable perpetual-motion machine.

Witness the latest moves by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, whose members last week approved higher camping fees at Jalama Beach, and a ban on shortterm rentals in unincorporated areas throughout the county.

The Jalama Beach move is the one that will most affect North County residents, because Jalama is a favorite destination for individuals and families looking for some fun in the sun at the shore.

The South County political bias showed itself in the board’s final vote on the camping fees — the two North County supervisors, Steve Lavagnino and Peter Adam, voted against the higher fees.

The 4th District’s Adam made the most compelling argument against dinging campers:

“Our locals are getting sandbagged,” Adam pointed out to fellow board members, and followed that up by saying he doesn’t see the logic of charging higher fees at one county park, while leaving other, selected parks alone.

At first glance the new fee increases don’t seem overly oppressive —a $5 hike in the cost of camping at Jalama Beach.

Current fees range from $25 to $45 per night.

Those costs will go up by $5 each on July 1, the height of the summer beach season.

We understand the board majority’s motivation, even though the fee hikes are expected to increase county revenues by less than $200,000 a year. Since the Great Recession, just about all levels of government have been hurting for money.

And don’t be fooled when your elected representatives refer to “fees” not being “taxes.” A fee by any other name is a tax, plain and simple.

We have a more universal problem with this sort of fee/tax increase — it represents an additional layer of financial burden for citizens to use public facilities they’ve already paid for through taxation, and will continue to pay for as long as they pay taxes in this county.

The short-term rental ban is different, but the same two supervisors — Lavagnino and Adam — objected, and came out on the short end of the board’s 3-2 vote.

Adam again made the salient point, that it’s counter-productive to institute a full-on ban, without first attempting to regulate the shortterm rental market through a permitting process.

The new ban will hit hard in the Santa Ynez Valley, which has more than 90 percent of the short-term rentals in unincorporated areas of the county.

Adam also objected strongly to the ban because it will shut off a tax revenue stream from those rental units, estimated at about $1.5 million a year.

While we are generally opposed to too much government regulation, the short-term rental market is one that cries out for county oversight, if for no other reason than assuring tax revenues and protecting the interests of short-term rental unit neighbors.

As it now stands, county officials don’t even know how many shortterm rental units are on the market.

We suspect county officials have not seen the last of both the park fees and short-term rental regulation issues.

The beach camping fee increase, while not staggering, could be enough to keep families from enjoying public property paid for with local tax dollars. The short-term rental ban seems to satisfy too few of the folks directly involved.