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Originally Posted by SweetCraft
Unfortunately the reality of the situation will be that NH Government will need to limit the # of the boats on the lake in order to protect/maintain the quality of its valuable economic resource called Winni. The way they will do this? Either a lottery for a set # of permits as many midwestern lakes do now or limiting size/hp/displacement. You wouldn't have a 100 folks in your pool if it only held 30 would you? Sorry folks hate to rain on the parade and everyone's "freedom" but in order to protect the lake for the many and future generations (they have rights to it also) limits will need to be put in place. Its sad but we just won't do the right thing and protect it on our own.
Its coming. I will take all bets.... place your bets....... 5 years MAX.....
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Besides all the reasons jrc mentions above, there are many tax revenue reasons why the state does NOT want the crowds to go away any time soon (and I too believe the crowds are not nearly what they were 5 years ago).
There was an article in the Citizen this week mentioning the out of state boat registration bill didn't pass or won't be voted on. This bill was attempting to charge out of state registered boats a fee for using lakes in the state. One of the reasons used to defeat the bill was the perceived negative affect the bill would have had on tourism.
Now we're not talking a ton of money OR a ton of people being affected. But the legislature is concerned enough about making laws that will have a negative effect on tourism and more importantly, tourism dollars.
NH's largest source of revenue is tourism. NH's largest tourism attraction is the lakes region. If they were hesitant to charge the few people who would have been affected by the registration bill, how do you think they are going to put large limits on the amount of boats that use the lake?
NH has built a revenue model around collecting as many taxes as possible from non-residents. I don't believe that's the case in those "western states". For that matter, I wouldn't be surprised if NH holds the record for collecting as much money from non-voting taxpayers as any state in the country, per capita.
So I'll take bets AND I'll give 2:1 odds that NH has either a sales tax or an income tax before any boat limitations via number of boats allowed on the lake is implemented.