Nauset - you're right, property taxes do go to the town. Most of that is for schools, but for Alton, that also goes to maintaining public docks and providing public area near the lake, which benefits anyone coming in on a boat. Same for all the lakeside towns. Another part goes to road repair - if the local roads weren't maintained, it would be hard for anyone to get to their boats or the lake.
My point in proposing this was also in response to ways to control large boats and their impact on the lake. I certainly don't want to pay more taxes generally, but I don't think that limiting or restricting size or HP is the answer. Putting in a control mechanism like an excise tax will self-regulate to an extent the size of boats. And for the portion that still go for a big boat, it provides a revenue stream to offset their impact. Maybe specify that this revenue stream would be for lake and waterbody use only - like to provide the funding for marine patrol and fish & game everyone says is lacking, or to help remediate environmental problems caused by boats and wakes. Similar to what happens in housing - if you build a giant place, you will pay more in taxes, if you have a modest house, you'll pay less.
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