||| FROM SHAUN HUBBARD and HAROLD KAWAGUCHI |||
When we vote to renew our San Juan County Conservation Land Bank, everyone wins.
Farmers win when the Land Bank offers affordable leases on public land.
Forests win when they are managed by the Land Bank and allowed to do their job of cleaning our air and water.
Future homeowners win because the Land Bank’s existence insures the Affordable Housing Real Estate Excise Tax.
Orcas win when the Land Bank protects healthy shorelines where the orca’s food chain begins.
Neighbors win when the Land Bank’s preserves are made firesafe.
Wildlife and wildflowers win because the Land Bank manages and safeguards their rare and finite habitat.
Islanders win when the Land Bank protects the natural beauty we love to live in.
Vote Yes to Renew Our Land Bank – it makes life better for all of us.
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Our taxes? Every proposal drains our limited retirement accounts. Getting tapped out with all the “benefits” we are promised.
Eric Gourley – The only “tax” you pay to preserve public land is the one-time, one percent REET when you buy a property here in the San Juans. And please don’t mention the old, fake trope about the Land Bank “taking land off the tax rolls.” The tax value of Land Bank property is less than 1/2 of one percent of all county land. If it were taxed, it would save you about $2 per $100,000 of assessed property value per year–so, maybe $15 or $20 bucks a year? For my money, preserving that natural, public land is one of the best retirement benefits I could have.
Thank-you, Shaun, Harold, and Brian!
Our Conservation Land Bank is worth far, far more to me than $15 or $20 per year.
Another benefit not listed: walking or relaxing in a forest has been shown to enhance our health and happiness.
I suggest that Eric give it a try.