It’s Welfare for the Water Set

You’d think that Newport Beach would know that rich people are whizzes at making money.

Not necessarily so. City officials appear stunned to learn that residents along Newport Bay are making good sums, some $1,000 a month or more, by renting out their boat slips to yacht owners. This irritates officials because the city leases slip spaces to homeowners for chump change--$80 a year. The privately built and owned docks rest on state “land,” but the city collects rent because it’s the trustee of the property.

The city’s Harbor Commission is studying this issue of making a private profit off public lands with an eye toward imposing additional fees on residents who sublet dock space.

Ignored in all this is the question of why the city--and by extension the state--are cutting millionaires an incredible break on parking spaces for their yachts.

Government is missing the boat. It has no business virtually giving away the public’s land to people who can afford to pay for it. And these landowners are profiting because a dock raises the value of a house at least $500,000.

But why should the city care whether wealthy homeowners dock their own yacht or one belonging to another wealthy person? Newport Beach should charge an equitable price; once people have paid, it should be up to them whether they rent it out or use the dock as a floating exercise mat.

Making a profit off public lands has a long history in this country. Consider the timber and grazing rights on federal land. And for decades, the state has rented out mobile home spaces at El Morro Village near Laguna Beach for about half the market price. Those homes, with their to-drool-over ocean views, frequently are rented to third parties. Only now, when the state wants that land back for public use, has anyone suggested that mobile-home owners should pay the going rate.

This is the same state whose budget--once it gets around to passing a budget--is expected to force deep cuts in job training and day care for poor Orange County residents.

Newport Beach will need to pay the substantial costs of stemming urban runoff responsible for much of the pollution in Newport Bay--where these boats are docked.

Public officials have valuable revenue resources at their command that could be used to help clean up the environment and help down-and-out people get a leg up in the work world. The waterside homeowners are smart enough to charge market rates for their slips. City and state officials should learn from their example.