Taxing Golf Courses

[HamiltonBHearst]

It would seem as if it were more than "some PC types" if they were able to get legislation through such a respected and mainstream body as the Maryland legislature.  

Maybe private clubs should be mandated by local governenment to set aside spots for low income households.  It would make the club more diverse, and provide more opportunities for all.  Half the spots could be done by lottery, the other half could be doled out to government cronies thus exacerbating the locals power.  

If not, just increase the property taxes, or limit water and electricity usage, or deny building permits, or any other rule which will bring these racist and exclusionary institutions to the bargaining table.  

[Rob_Waldron]

"racist and exclusionary institutions"

Get a grip. The Tree is a private club with a membership by invitation. Why shouldn't they have the right to invite whoever they choose?

BTW the membership encompasses a variety of ethnicities so it could hardly be deemed as racist.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Jamey - I think your story on Burning Tree is a little off.  I've never heard of anybody trying to get their liquor license.  There is so little drinking at BT, I doubt they'd notice.  Now ban Geritol, and that would be another matter...

There was never any legislation passed in Maryland concerning BT.  There was a suit brought against BT in a Montgomery County court by a wealthy woman lobbyist.  She claimed (pretty good argument too) that she was being denied the ability to make income that was available to her male lobbyist colleagues who had access to BT.  She computed a dollar amount of lost income and argued that unless she was allowed to get into BT that potential income generated from entertainment would be illegally denied to her.

She lost her case.  The judge ruled that there was no statute that required BT admit anybody other than who they wanted.  The judge did remark that the 1920s tax zoning for BT (rural farmland) needed to be updated.  The judge re-zoned BT to 1990s prime Bethesda real estate property.

The tax hit to BT didn't go up 5-6 times but more like 500 times!  Some of the old not-so-wealthy members couldn't pay the new dues and dropped out.

JC

[HamiltonBHearst]

I guess part of the problem might be that we have people who actually think the woman in Montgomery County had a "pretty good argument".  

Some also might argue that it would be preferable for people other than judges to set zoning policy.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Ham,

Not saying I agree or disagree, just saying it's a pretty good legal argument.

JC

[Jamey Bryan]

Jonathan

I was afraid my memory was going the way of my golf swing....

Following is from the Post archives:

2/25/83
ANNAPOLIS, Feb. 24 -- Burning Tree Club, the last all-male golfing bastion in the Washington area, was told by Montgomery County's state senators today that it must either open its doors to women or be stripped of its $152,000 yearly exemption from state and county property taxes.

3/23/84
ANNAPOLIS, March 22 -- Valuable tax breaks were preserved today for the Burning Tree Club and other organizations that discriminate on the basis of race or sex as a Maryland legislative committee killed two bills to strip such groups of their tax credits.

3/17/86
A handful of zealous women, who object to Burning Tree's all-male status, now seek to deprive Burning Tree of the special tax assessment for open spaces. They would require Burning Tree to admit women to membership on pain of losing this assessment.

7/23/87
Since 1965, Maryland has allowed the land owned by country clubs to be assessed at a lower rate if clubs agree not to develop the property. That amounted to a tax savings of $300,000 for Burning Tree for the 1986-87 tax year, according to court documents. The documents state that from 1981 to 1985, Burning Tree paid $165,000 in property taxes to both the state and Montgomery County.

10/5/89
Burning Tree Country Club in Bethesda relinquished its state "open space" tax break in 1989 to remain all- male after Maryland's highest court ruled that its membership policies discriminated against women.


There was no mention of any suit against Burning Tree by a lady lobbyist, though both Montgomery County Council officials and the MD Atty General were involved in the litigation.  There have been a couple of cases in the DC area where women have sued on grounds similar to those you describe, but they involved clubs other than Burning Tree (Manor was one, but the facts of the case were substantially different).

To reassociate this little diversion with the original question of the thread, though, it's clear that the tax policy of a particular jurisdiction will differ substantially for public/muni/resort/private, and may be driven more by the political agenda than by reasonable considerations.

Jamey

Mr. Hearst..... "respected and mainstream body as the Maryland legislature" is a classic!

[Jonathan Cummings]

Jamey - my apologies.  I saved the article about the woman lobbyist but can no longer find it.  It was 20 years ago but I swear the story was about BT.  Apparently it was not.  Thanks for keeping me calibrated.

JC

[Garland Bayley]

Why is Mike Sweeney a guest?

[Bob_Huntley]

Quite possibly, an excommunication.

Bob

[Kevin_Reilly]

My original interest in GCA.com was as a budding developer with a friend that is a housing developer in SE Pennsylvania. Well my friend the developer is building houses on the land but the open space will stay just as that - open space as the economics in that specific region did not even come close to allowing us to build a golf course.

One common strategy with unused open space is to "monetize" it by granting an easement to the government to prevent future development on the property.  The diminishment of value to the property post-donation can be deducted as a charitable contribution.  Quite common with large landholders/ranchers etc these days.  There was an article about it in the WSJ last Wednesday.