Hinkle, Warnick offer bill ending boatlift fees

COLUMBIA BASIN — Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, and Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, introduced a bill ending boatlift fees affecting Moses Lake residents Wednesday.

The bill allows for boatlifts or docks to be installed as long as they are used for recreational purposes. Moored boats used as a residence or for commercial use are not included in the exemption.

In the summer of 2008, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) began ticketing residents who own boatlifts claiming they had to pay a $175 annual fee for placing their lift in the lake.

Controversy arose and the DNR halted fee collection and ticketing due to confusion about the purpose of the fee. Moses Lake was the only water body in the state ticketed.

“They didn’t understand why they would be charged to have a lift on their own waterfront,” Warnick stated. “Because the lake shore is considered state-owned aquatic land, the state was allowed in statute to collect fees on the boatlifts. The problems was, they had not been collecting the fees until June 2008, and citizens were not made aware of the fee until they were served notice of a possible violation. We talked with the former commissioner of public lands to waive the fee until we got this sorted out.”

Hinkle and Warnick attended public meetings last summer held by DNR in Moses Lake and announced they would introduce legislation eliminating the fee.

“I guess I’m just getting tired, frankly, of the government taxing citizens for the ‘right’ to do this or that, of the ‘right’ to use their own property,” Hinkle stated. “I appreciate the former commissioner of public lands being willing to waive the fee until a more permanent solution is found. This needs to be a legislative fix and we need to do it this year.”

The Ecology and Parks Committee with review the bill.

A legislative hearing is not scheduled.