How Do We Feel About Government Charging Money To Swim In The Ocean?
By Tommy DeSeno, cross posted on Ricochet
My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean’s edge as I can go.
– Henry David Thoreau
I’m a son of a beach. Sand between my toes and white stuff on my nose. People have many different places they feel closest to God. Church comes to mind. Others enjoy the serenity of a garden, forest or mountain. I’m betting the ubiiquitous Dave Carter feels something for an open road. For me, sitting on a jetty with the waves lapping around me fills me with the Holy Spirit.
My absolute favorite time to go down the beach is just after sun up when it is truly hot and sunny – still over 80 degrees at sunrise. The ocean looks like it’s covered in diamonds and there is a sizzling sound when the wave breaks and crawls upon the sand. No tourists yet. Just me and my safe place until they get here.
By the way – “down the beach” – that’s a colloquialism used by beach boys. We never go “to the beach,” it’s always “down the beach.” There is at least a decade-long moratorium against newcomer assimilation should we hear you say “down the shore.” Never say “shore” if you want to fit in with the locals.
Despite the spiritual love we in New Jersey have for the sand and surf, our state is one of the few places in the world to charge people to walk on the sand to get to the ocean. Jersey strange. First we charge you $2 per hour to park next to the beach, then $8 per person to walk onto it.
The law is truly odd. The public has a right to the high water mark left by the ocean. Government can’t charge you for being there. The problem is, not even Carl Lewis on his best Olympic day could long jump the 75 or so yards of sand to get from the boardwalk to the high water mark. Land in the sand and you get arrested.
For sure there are places in New Jersey where you can get on the sand free of charge. But that’s a vestige of the “separate but equal” mindset of yesteryear, because as every local knows, you can’t go to just “any old beach.” Beaches are as personal to people as their undergarments, and held just as closely.
Don’t marry a beach girl or boy until you first work out which beach you’ll frequent. Some love waves. Some love little coves. Some want shade. My wife digs Avon-By-The-Sea since it’s a big family beach. I body surf in Asbury Park because there are at least a dozen venues where I can swill adult beverages right on the boardwalk. So we split our time between beaches. My wife and I treat our beaches like divorced parents treat their children – we get visitation every other weekend.
The point is, don’t tell me I can go miles away to a free beach I don’t like and all is the same. It’s like telling me to wear shoes that don’t fit. I can’t get comfortable.
The political debate that rages in New Jersey, as it now rages again, is not whether government should decide if you can swim. It is “which government” gets to decide if you can swim. Some lobby for state rule (big government monolithic solution) and the more conservative (so they claim) want “home rule” where each town gets to decide the rules.
I don’t know why there needs to be any rules. New Jersey towns will tell you they have to pay for life guards and beach cleanup, so they should get to charge for beach access.
I counter with Aruba. Bermuda. Cancun. Jamaica. Bahamas. Every state on America’s east coast. These are all places I’ve been where I didn’t have to pay a dime to park near the beach, walk on the sand or swim in the Ocean. All of them have governments that work, with taxes and costs of living far less than the Garden State. So, Mr. New Jersey Mayors – your excuse is sooooo bogus (said in my best Jeff Spicoli voice)!
How about MMM? What do you think? Let me pose a polling question that is fair, unloaded and in no way leads you to an answer I personally hope you give:
Should New Jersey towns honor the freedom and liberty that our Americanism promises since the time of our founding by making beaches free, or should they continue their neo-fascist, big government corruption by charging money for the God given right to shred a waive?
More from my site
DeSeno On FoxNews.com Live This Morning
An Asbury Park Letter to Springsteen About “The Middle” Commercial
THE WEAK-KNEED ASBURY PARK CITY COUNCIL and TILLIE
There’s no such thing as a free beach
Monmouth Democrat Chairman Brown Shouldn’t Survive This Cop Hating Hypocrisy
DeSeno: NJ’s New “Gay Panic Defense” Law Made Illegal What Was Already Illegal
Red Bank’s Sue Viscomi Said Nothing Racist and Mayor Menna Needs to Say So
Musings of a Values Voter, 2016
Bruce Springsteen, Will You Support Asbury Park Gays Against Bigotry and Refuse to Play There, Too?
There Will Be No Bathing Suits on The Road to Serfdom (but in this case I might not mind)
Ok, so who will pay to clean the beaches? Pick up the garbage? Pay the lifeguard? It would be great if they were free, so just tell us — how do we come up with the dough to pay for servicing them? Maybe a volunteer patrol — when you can feel the garbage beneath your toes? Easy to complain without giving a solid and responsible alternative for what to do in place of what is there now.
Joe how does every other state in America do it?
How does every other country in the world do it?
New Jersey is an anomaly here.
Jersey government has most of it’s residents in the mindset that money belongs to government, which leads to statements like “tax reductions have to paid for.”
Beach fees are the radioactive consequence of bad government; of lazy government.
If New Jersey government wasn’t so bloated in other areas, beach fees wouldn’t be a thought.
What’s next? We’ve seen attempts to tax our bicycles this past year in New Jersey for goodness sakes.
If they stuck to just governing and not retirement planning for government employees, they’d only need a small amount of money to run the government.
“user fees” I do not mind paying, is the now $90./ season for Avon beach..( agree with your wife, Tom)..face it, most people are just slobs, and pretty dumb, as far as swimming on their own, in unguarded waters…. here in Jersey, it’d just be an additional tax on all property owners for to pay in the Shore towns, for the daily sand-scrub of all the human debris they leave everyday, (esp. the Bennies!), the clean bathrooms, the lifeguards, and enough daily-emptied trash cans.. so, it seems to work here, why mess with it?.. if some Shore towns use beach fees to balance a local budget, well, welcome to Red Bank, where the homeowners’ get to pay the increasingly outrageous local utility’s water/sewer fees- is always “pay me now, pay me later, and pay me more”, no mateer what.. last time I was at a “free” beach like Sandy Hook, it was disgusting, and, really, unhealthy! ..
Tommy,
One of the few says the “free” beach like Sandy Hook is unhealthy, but I prefer it because bathing suits are unhealthy in that they cause Seabathers Eruption, according to Drs. Anitia Freudenthal and Paul Joseph’s 1993 article for the New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199308193290805#t=article
At Sandy Hook there is no beach fee. You have to pay to park during the peak season but if you get there at sunrise of after 5PM you can even park for free. You can go without that unhealthy bathing suit and you can do unhealthy things like drink beer and smoke cigarettes on the beach.
But that is just my personal preference and doesn’t address the majority of New Jersey beaches.
The problem that Tommy raises is part of the overall problem in the way New Jersey government is organized….the home rule scam. Home rule really is a scam. As any mayor will tell you, especially when being questioned about property taxes, local governments really have very little discretion or power. The state dictates much of what municipalities and school boards must do, what they spend and how they raise revenues. But the state elected officials are not accountable to the voters because the local government is levying the taxes and fees to pay for the local but state mandated programs and services.
So it is with beach fees. The local governments must provide clean and safe beaches with life guards and they must pay for it. Local taxpayers could foot the bills, but then the complaints about “bennies” would be even louder and there would be calls to make the beaches open to locals only, which is a violation of state law.
I suspect that in other states where there are clean, free beaches the responsiblitity for the safety and cleanliness of the beach does not fall onto the few people who live within a mile or so of the beach, but on state or county governments.
OK, heres a solution: Since the PBA and FOP unions have strongarmed the weak municipal leaders and the taxpayers of NJ into thinking that patrolmen and police are SUPPOSED to earn $100,000/year +$25,000 per year in overtime, have them earn the money to pay for beaches. The first part of this is that the police are extrmely overpaid. They are no longer middle class. Making $130,000 as many are (check datauniverse on app.com) every year with zero chance of a layoff and retiring with $100,000 a year and a first rate pension, medical, dental, vision and pet insurance for fido and the family FOR LIFe is not middle class. Add on the fact that at 45-50 years old when they retire they earn approx. $50-60K a year in other jobs. Now, can we still say police are middle class? Wake up to $100,000 a year for life? So, why not put pressure on police to ticket more speeders, urinating in public, disturbing the public, drugs, aggressive driving etc. in the shore towns? This revenue will pay for beaches. Less crime and us taxpayers will feel a little bit better about funding the huge salaries of police that are too often parked on side of road texting and or talking on cell phones. This is disgracul and happens all too often. Any comments would be appreciated.
@”Ok, so who will pay to clean the beaches?”
Joe, owners of multi-million-dollar properties on the beachfront can afford to pay the higher property taxes for that privilege.
Art-
“As any mayor will tell you, especially when being questioned about property taxes, local governments really have very little discretion or power. The state dictates much of what municipalities and school boards must do, what they spend and how they raise revenues. But the state elected officials are not accountable to the voters because the local government is levying the taxes and fees to pay for the local but state mandated programs and services.” – Art Gallagher
This is one of the greatest blurbs ever written! It should be placed on the walls of Trenton and our Legislators should be forced to read it daily.
Our Oceanport schools receive .01 back for every dollar we send to Trenton as per Sen. Michael Doherty’s calculations.
As a Councilman, we are smothered by unfunded mandates such as; Stormwater Management mandates, binding arbitration, and ever changing COAH requirements.
Perhaps a piece will be forthcoming???!!!
Have you ever seen what beach towns spend ….take a look at the money that goes into their beach utility fund …..Bradley Beach has 8 brand new red pickup trucks that are written off in the fund then 4 (or more ) quarter ton trucks all this goes with workers ….I bet all those trucks were out plowing or doing double duty this winter ….So now you can understand where your beach badge money goes …..
I have been saying it for years the biggest reason for high proerty taxes are unfunded mandates.
As to paying for beaches some states pay for lifeguards and cleaning by renting umbrellas, chairs and even catamarans to the tourists.
By the way the beaches are free in Atlantic city and Wildwood
Let the market decide. Beachgoers can and should decide for themselves what is the right price for parking and beach access relative to the quality of the beach experience. Similarly, towns should be able to price their product at a level which makes the most sense for their community. While the Public Access Doctrine has a place, it should not require that beach towns carry an uncompensated cost burden for things like parking, showers, and cleanup for free riders. If you want to create chaos, make a product free (ie.paid for by someone else).
Ghee, there’s a new idea — tax businesses and make them pay for the beaches. Typical liberal approach that basically says to hell with the engine that fuels the economy. Look, free beaches should be the case. The fact that people have to pay is a function of the institutional problems with NJ government. There are other more pressing issues that need fixing within the structure and delivery of government. Should we pay taxes on the parkway or the turnpike? Should we have 500 separate municipalities and just as many school districts? In other states the roadways are free, so how do they pay for it? The problem we have is that we have to much government, to much over-lap and too much cost packed into the cost side of the equation. The revenue model is not adequate absent tax increases which are not acceptable. The challenge is not just limited to beaches — its just a glaring issue that is easy to see. Dig a bit and you’ll see a pattern of inefficiency that would cripple a private business. So the solution to a free beach; consolidate local governments, significantly trim the size of the public workforce, subcontract many of the services delivered, promote incentives to help small business (what we have in most areas) that create jobs and re-consolidate more management authority within the counties which are far better positioned to manage larger geographical areas, etc. But until we’re ready to deal with a total re-organzation of the way government works, we have to pay to keep the beaches safe and clean. If the cost of a daily badge is enough motivation to finally get people to realize the need for structural changes to government, pass the sun screen please.
I agree with Joe D.
I took some crap from local so called “Republicans” over my objection to increasing the fees to access the beach.
I understand there are costs to operating a safe, clean beach, I really do. However, the budgets are out of control, $1.8 MILLION to let people on a beach? Yeah right.
As Joe D says, *MY* personal problem with the fee isn’t that *I*I can’t afford the beach, it’s that the various Governments in the State of NJ have found, and do use, every opportunity to nickel and dime me on every little thing and I’m just tired of being told “You don’t pay enough, pay this too!”. I pay county taxes, but Seven Presidents Ocean Front Park (the County beach, in Long Branch) is more $s than just going to LB beaches. Cheasequake State Park, more $s than going to the beach. Sandy Hook, nation park, “free” but you pay a small fortune “to park”. Parkway/Turnpike tolls have only gone up, EZPass/eliminating toll workers was supposed to save me money and decrease costs, but I don’t see that happening, never will. Red Light cameras are supposed to be “fair” and reduce my police costs, but towns that use them still have the same, or higher, police costs — but use the red light cam revenue to cover those additional costs, and I pay the bills as a fee/fine/tax.
Again, as Joe D says, what we need are sweeping and significant changes to the way Government “works”, a term I use lightly. We need real, “structural changes to government”. Unfortunately, what we have are mostly apathetic voters who are tired of being pushed around, skeptical of any real change and representatives who are too afraid to give up some power, tell special interests “no” or “too bad” and are unwilling to give up some little control they (think they) have.
I’m not a Tea Party kind of guy, but I certainly do find the “Taxed Enough Already” phrase to be a home run.
Of all the beaches in the world, only we have bennys, and the exported expense and intractable burdens they bring. The Cheesequake Creek, Sayreville and Laurence Harbor beaches should be free to benys – they have the metal to deal with them there.
What a ridiculous statement. Sounds nearly racist. Guess “frithguild” must have been born right there on the sand otherwise he came from somewhere too. How about we stick to a real intellectual discussion on the issues and not get silly.
“For me, sitting on a jetty with the waves lapping around me fills me with the Holy Spirit.” — Tommy DeSeno (June 27, 2011)
It’s a shame that same Holy Spirit doesn’t influence Tommy DeSeno’s opinion of those who financially support pro-abortion candidates. Funny how both Tommy DeSeno and the Holy Spirit both give a pass to liberal, Rumson “Republicans” with fat checkbooks (e.g., the Gooches).
One of my favorite Tommy DeSeno quotes:
“It’s silly to examine the campaign contributions of people like the Gooches.”
“There is a certain level of business that you get to where you end up givinh [sic] political contributions for reasons other than ideology.”
“And it is beyond just getting access to whomever is running the committees (but that is part of it).”
“Sometimes it needs to be done simply because someone you are doing business with asks you to do it. Sometimes it is done to get pesky people off your back.”
— Thomas DeSeno, June 19, 2011 on this blog site, and when commenting about the Gooches financial support of liberal, pro-abortion candidates like Frank Pallone and others.
You have a vivid imagination Joe D. National Lead and bennys have alot in common – lack of respect for the condition of property they do not own. The result is assumption of costs by others. So our beaches bear a unique burden, which was a retort to others who pointed out that free beaches work well in other places in the world. My comment also questions why the victim bears the cost in one instance, while the state bears the cost simply because a metallic substance does the damage. I guess the irony flew over your head.