As to wear and tear on the golf course. Here in bermuda grass country the unrepaired divots created by walkers who do not carry divot bottles is similar to the cart traffic wear and tear. Remember we are bermudagrass... not bent. We keep our fairways firm and fast on NC clay.
Up north here, we use divot mix too with bent mix in it. Cart riders fill in divots, it is the least they can do for taking a buggy and costing more on maint. Higher end clubs pay someone to fill in divots throughout the week. Do you over seed your fairways in the fall/winter? I am under the impression dormant bermuda can take only so much cart traffic. I fill in our divots on the range, I am always filling in cartballers divots when they are done too, due to their laziness. It's really a team effort.
Assuming your club MUST have carts in order to compete... when cart fee revenue exceeds cart fleet expenses then the riders are paying MORE of their fair share than the walkers. Sorry Sean... like I said before... it's basic math. I think the word "subsidize" is causing all of this hysteria.
It is all marketing, you keep cart fees high, so you can lower your monthly dues. It is deceptive telling people what your monthly dues are, and the bill they get at the end of the month/year with all the x,y, and z mandatory fees. As my friend who is an exceptional keeper replied, ''If we didn't have any walking rounds, the maint of the course would go up''. You aren't subsidizing walkers, you are encouraging less carts