Thoughts on EWUA | Letter

Published 11:32 am Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The Guest House Initiative is an unjustified discriminatory surtax which will affect some long time small water users who happen to have guest apartments inside modest homes or nearby on their property, usually created as small spillover units for elderly parents or caregivers. These are very small secondary housing units I am talking about. Many of these units end up housing a solitary person who cannot afford other housing.

As I have said several times in other letters, this initiative discriminates against those who have this situation while it therefore FAVORS and protects those who may have very high water use but live in a mansion with wet bars, extra bedrooms, several bathrooms, often with enormous kitchens, but without actually separate “guest” houses. It is not possible for this initiative to be fair as it is presently written, which is probably why it has sat on the books and never been enacted before now, and which is why it should be either tossed out or revised to address the actual fact of water OVER usage of a tax parcel. Suggesting that it is “generous” to only charge $3000 rather than the $6000 surtax by “letting” people pony up before Dec. 31 is in actual fact not “generous” but seems more like a form of extortion.

In other words this initiative should ONLY ever be enforced if any particular property is in fact PROVED to be using an excessive amount of water, more than one would expect from an average single family home over a period of time. That is a pretty simple concept, and it is logical, and would prove fair to a pretty major extent.

Please get involved by voicing your opinion or attending the Nov. 12 Eastsounder Water Users Association meeting.

Lesley Liddle

Eastsound