Quick Facts:

• Residents of Lake Forest Homeowners Association (LFHOA) are subject to property taxes in accordance with Long Lake Management District (LLMD) resolutions because the HOA owns a community parcel on the shoreline of Long Lake (Hearing Park).
• LFHOA owns 1% of Long Lake's shoreline but makes up 13% of the LLMD assessments which are added to your property taxes assessed by Thurston County.
• Each homeowner in LFHOA will pay $100/year in property taxes if LLMD No. 25 Resolution is passed to fund the management of the lake. For reference this is equal to 43% of what LFHOA residents pay to the HOA annually.
• Our LFHOA parcel along the lake (Hearing Park) is one of over 300 properties on the lake, but it is unequally taxed to provide 13% of the LLMD funding.
• The current resolution and WA State Law prevent a majority of the property owners in the district from having a voice in the matter if most of the property owners on the lake are in support.
  There are numerous other neighborhoods around Long Lake that are facing the same inequality and taxation without proper representation.

The background:

1) The residents of Lake Forest Homeowners Association (LFHOA) own about 1% of the lakeshore of Long Lake, however they make up 13% of the assessments funding the Long Lake Management District (LLMD). Residents of LFHOA will each pay about $100/year if the 2025 LLMD No. 25 Resolution is passed, while the average property owner along the lakeshore will pay about $500/year. The residents along the lakeshore have a much greater benefit from a managed lake and enjoy the lake's wonderful aspects daily which is much more frequent than residents with community access such as those living in the LFHOA.

2) Residents in a community such as LFHOA could feasibly only enjoy the lake via our community owned park once per month given the size of our neighborhood. While monthly visits are stated as feasible, it would entail 14 households using the small beach and dock area every day. Property owners on the lake enjoy the benefits of the lake daily, providing at least 30 times (daily vs. monthly visits) the benefit compared to what residents of LFHOA could feasibly have. The difference in assessment funding between residents with community access such as LFHOA and residents owning property on the lakeshore should be more than 5 times as is currently proposed due to the vast inequality in benefit. The resolution states "The level of benefit for private upland property with community access is less than that of residential parcels with direct lake frontage and access." This point stated in the resolution needs to be reevaluated to determine fair taxation.

3) The number of LLMD votes given to a property owner is based on the assessed amount (in accordance with WA State Law), so residents within the district are not represented equally. The approximate 315 properties along the lakeshore will control about 64% of the votes, meaning they have complete control over the outcome of the resolution's vote no matter what the other 1,100 property owners vote. This lack of true representation on the matter of taxation is grounds for any and all concerns regarding the formation and the assessment structure of LLMD to be heard and sincerely considered by Thurston County and LLMD because the residents of the district who do not live on the lake have virtually no say in the matter once the resolution is proposed.

4) LLMD and Thurston County stated that in 2015, 343 signatures on a petition representing 27.5% of the LLMD area supported the LLMD resolution, while the 2025 petition gathered 228 signatures representing 20.5% of the LLMD area. There are 315 parcels along the lakeshore, so one could imagine that this petition that was not widely dispersed across the LLMD was likely focused on lakeshore owners who stand to benefit the most from the LLMD.

The decline in support while taxes are proposed to be increased is counterintuitive. LFHOA has approximately 432 parcels being taxed to support the LLMD, so we have the power to create a stronger petition against the unfair taxation and voting regulations that LLMD and its supporters are trying to pass.

In the next year if LLMD Resolution No. 25 is passed, LFHOA residents will collectively spend in property taxes about $43,000 to support the management of the lake which is $118 per day out of our pockets.

5) Solutions:

a - decrease the proposed annual taxation to $55 per dwelling whether the parcel is located on or off the lake and increase the linear lake front footage tax assessment to $7.09 to achieve the same level of funding for LLMD. This would allow property owners in LLMD who don't live on the lake to pay 15 times less than those who live on the lake and get over 30 times the benefit. For LFHOA this would cost residents about $55/year.

b - assess all properties along the lake based on the linear foot of lake shore and have community members pay for community owned parcels. To achieve the same level of funding for LLMD that would be $8.63 per foot of frontage and no flat fee per dwelling would be needed. For LFHOA this would cost residents about $9.09/year.

c - assess all properties with shoreline equally. To achieve the same level of funding for LLMD that would be about $1,000 per parcel and community members would be assessed their portion of community owned parcels. For LFHOA this would cost residents about $2.39/year.