Upon hearing rumors of a proposal that would end publicly subsidized property taxes for private golf clubs, members of Seattle’s Broadmoor Golf Club panicked at the thought of annual dues skyrocketing from $300,000 to a staggering $301,000.
“What’s next? Having to pay any kind of toll when my superyacht needs to pass through the Ballard Locks to completely screw traffic in Ballard and Fremont?” said longtime Broadmoor Golf Club member Bob Stewart. “Why does anyone need us to pay any more than only 6% of the property tax we would be paying if we were any other person or business in this city? So they can give hand-outs to homeless people? Won’t someone think of how this increase in my annual dues means I’ll have to stop eating dinner with disposable crystal forks?”
Land at the Broadmoor Golf Club is currently valued at about 76 cents per square foot while land in Othello is valued and taxed at $20 per square foot, Magnolia $60, and Wallingford $100 – valuations and taxes golf club members think is more than fair.
“Sure, almost no one subsidizing these property taxes can afford to even enter this golf club, but that’s not what really matters here,” Stewart said as he looked out at the greens. “It’s that an elite few get to enjoy it for you while we plot many other ways to avoid taxes to enjoy many other things you also can’t afford to do.”
At press time, golf club members said their anxieties had significantly eased when they remembered most local politicians are either too spineless or bought and sold by golf club members to ever actually do anything about it.
