Many New Jersey Shore communities lag behind beach towns from Maine to Florida that operate just fine without imposing beach-tag fees.
Here is a simple solution for eliminating the fees. It would take political will and an editorial push to make it happen.
One of the biggest resentments about beach fees among taxpayers (both state and federal) is that billions of our tax dollars are spent to replenish beaches - and then we have to pay again to use them.
The primary justification for spending for beach replenishment is that it generates tax revenue from commercial enterprises at the Shore.
But compare that tax revenue with the cost of eternally fighting the ocean (think global warming and rising sea levels) and you'll see that the true beneficiaries are real estate investors.
Shore property owners benefit disproportionately from those efforts and tax dollars. Real estate values at the Shore would quickly deflate if beaches were allowed to continue their natural march toward the bay.
Shore communities legitimately claim that beach fees are used for beach maintenance and safety, trash removal, lifeguards, and so on.
But if at least an equal amount came from another source, would these towns be willing to eliminate beach-tag fees? Elimination also would save the costs of issuing tags and of enforcement, adding even more to their bottom line.
The annual revenue generated by beach tags can be easily calculated (we have years of data for this) and a fee to offset that revenue could be tacked on to each sale of a property on the barrier islands.
It should be easy enough to figure out how these numbers need to be adjusted, but let's say that the cumulative revenue from all beach tag fees for a season is $10 million, and that 10,000 Shore properties (residential and commercial) are sold each year.
Each sale would be assessed an average $1,000 "beach maintenance fee."
Have you checked property prices at the Shore lately? That would be 1 percent of a $100,000 sale and only 1/10 of 1 percent on a $1 million sale.
I doubt that such a small amount would stop the sale of a $1,000,000 property, as mortgage rates fluctuate more than that day by day.
It should really be a proportionate fee. By using a sliding scale, the small investor won't pay a disproportionately higher fee on a smaller sale. Think how much a casino sale in Atlantic City would generate versus a condo in Ocean City.
