The ballots are out proposing disproportionate taxation on non-lakeshore owners, and lakeshore owners hold a majority of the votes! So what can we do...

Contact the County Commissioners, especially our rep Emily Clouse and Tye Menser (as he seems amendable to our concerns) that they need to exercise their abilities to revise the resolution for fairer taxes based upon the numerous recommendations they have received. Feel free to copy and paste what I've typed below.

Commissioner Emily Clouse: emily.clouse@co.thurston.wa.us
      Executive Aid AJ Mai andraya.mai@co.thurston.wa.us
Commissioner Tye Menser: tye.menser@co.thurston.wa.us
      Executive Aid Lynda: Lynda.N.Zeman@co.thurston.wa.us

An easy way to consider the fairness of the current resolution is to apply the same taxation on public parks to the privately owned parks which is: $5.03/foot of lakeshore, $1.64/boater day, and $0.26/swimmer day.

A likely estimate of Lake Forest's Hearing Park swimmer and boaters would make the annual property assessment $5.45 which is much lower than the proposed $99.89. If the estimated number of swimmers and boaters is multiplied by 100 for the sake of avoiding debates about estimating usage, the average property assessment in Lake Forest would be $20.43. Why are upland parcels with private community access required to pay $99.89 when they don't generate the same usage as a public park since they don't have a motor boat launch, hundreds of parking spaces, and are closed to the general public?

Other HOA's around the lake are similarly affected! The bigger the HOA the larger the discrepancy in taxation as compared to usage.

We have the chance in November and December for changes to the resolution post ballot measure. The more signatures this petition has the better, so please share!