Moratorium Status
October 30th, 2009 at 9:29Last evening both houses of Congress passed the 2010 Interior Appropriations bill, which contained a 75% moratorium on recreation residence fee increases for 2010. There is every expectation that the President will sign this bill into law in the next several days. While this was not quite what we’d hoped, the moratorium limits increases to 2010 to no more than 25% more than a cabin owner’s 2009 bill. Following is the language of the bill:
CABIN USER FEES
SEC. 433. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used by the Secretary of Agriculture to increase a recreation residence user fee for calendar year 2010 by more than 25 percent of the recreation residence user fee applicable to the recreation residence for calendar 2009.
Even with this moratorium, cabins will be lost in some areas where exorbitant 1998-era appraisals are already being phased in and the burden is already too heavy. Work is under way to provide assistance to these cabin owners.
In parallel with the moratorium effort, work has proceeded on the drafting of a new fee bill and it is in the final stages of review before its presentation to Congress, hopefully by the end of next week.
October 31st, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Great news and great work by our C2 and NFH members and staff!
-Mark Schwebke
December 23rd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Having just received our bill for the year, I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in the FS. We received a “supplemental” 2009 bill, in the very last week of 2009, which was essentially a 100% increase for 2009. Then they sent the 2010 bill, which was now complying with the law , by not raising our 2010 fee by any more than 25% of our 2009 fee. These people make me sick! Then they made it clear that the fee’s were based on the 1990 estimated cabin values and that by next year the new fees will be based on the latest 2008 appraisal. Which for our cabin group as I recall, was about 75% higher. So imagine what that bill in 2011 is going to look like?
They may have gotten their wish and killed several cabins on Lake Shasta, if not a majority of them in the near future. Our cabin group has no road access, and over the last 4 years, limited water access. We had to spend hundreds of man hours and thousands of dollars last year to become permit compliant. (How much of that was necessary is clearly debatable!) Now it is going to cost us several thousand dollars a year for the “right” or “lottery” to gain access and use our cabin during an ever shrinking window of opportunity. I know for a fact that every member of our cabin group is currently retired, on a fixed income, unemployed, underemployed or working there ass of to keep up! I think the FS idea is that everyone who owns a cabin must be rich, and therefore can afford whatever it takes to keep it, might just create that very outcome! I’m sure there are plenty of rich people out there with very nice cabins, but that isn’t us or many of the cabins I’m around. Ours is four walls and a roof. A simple septic and water system. 800 square feet in the middle of the woods that requires yearly attention and maintenance. But of course it goes back several generations for some of us and is one place where we can maintain a healthy lifestyle and connect to childhood memories.
As far as cabin sales go, no cabin has been sold for the appraised value the FS says it’s worth. 1/3 of the cabins just barely passed the permit process and owners haven’t been using them for years. They have told me an attempt to sell them with no takers. Not only no takers but no interest. They are stuck with them until they give them away or things change very far in the future. The increase in fee’s are just an added slap in the face during hard times for a cabin they can use or sell. And for what? We have no amenities! We use nothing! The FS doesn’t have to spend a dime on us except to inspect the cabins once a year. And prior to last years permit process….hadn’t even done that in the five years before! Who is going to buy a cabin in the future unless its nice enough, with year-around access, and continues to rise in value? Only people rich enough to!