In response to a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece, one man who said he’s “never belonged to any country club” said he still felt preserving green space and quality of life is more important than “taxing [clubs] to death.” A member of Wilshire CC in Los Angeles said the club’s tax relief is warranted because of how many people it has steadily employed over the years.
After a recent op-ed piece where columnist Jim Newton singled out the tax situations of Wilshire Country Club, The California Club and the Jonathan Club to make a case that California’s Proposition 13 property-tax law has provided inequitable benefits to “elite social and country clubs” for 36 years (http://clubandresortbusiness.com/2014/06/30/op-ed-piece-los-angeles-times-decries-tax-break-clubs/), the Times printed two Letters to the Editor that came to country clubs’ defense.
Richard Rothschild of Los Angeles wrote:
“Jim Newton’s evidence supports his assertion that wealthy country clubs are getting an unfair tax break thanks to Proposition 13. So what’s the alternative? Tax the clubs to death so they are forced to sell their land to developers, who will tear out the golf courses, grass and trees and build streets and high-rises there?
“Personally, I’ve never belonged to any country club,” Rothschild continued. “But I can tell you that we must support preserving whatever green space we do have over allowing bad architecture, overdevelopment, traffic nightmares and parking congestion.
“There’s something that’s more important than a plebeian sense of economic justice here,” Rothschild’s letter concluded. “It’s called quality of life.”
In a second letter, Barbara Hardesty of Los Angeles wrote, “Here we go again, hammering away at poor old Proposition 13.Newton fingers the Wilshire Country Club as an unintended beneficiary. My late husband and I joined the club in 1979 because he loved golf. I am not, by anyone’s standard, a wealthy person, nor are many of the club’s other members.
“There are a great many people employed by the Wilshire Country Club who work on the golf course, in the dining rooms and in the locker rooms, and they are all loved by the members,” Hardesty continued. “In some cases, several generations of family members are or have been employed by the club. Give the club a break.
“And for the record, my own home is protected by Proposition 13, thank God. Otherwise, I might not be able to afford to live in my wonderful home at the age of 88 on a retirement income,” Hardesty’s letter concluded.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.