In response to, “Fairness, fiscal woe warrant end of tax break,” which states that Minnesota’s cabin owners should pay more because they can afford it, a demographic study by the Minnesota Seasonal Recreational Property Owners Coalition shows that the average cabin owner has a household income of $58,000. Most are retired and live on fixed incomes — incomes that are plummeting at the moment. The average cabin has been in constant family ownership for 25 years — well above the national average. These places are heirlooms, not assets, and they represent much of what makes Minnesota a great place to live. Many of us who do not own a cabin or hunting shack have spent time at them. For the most part we are not talking about a McMansion on the lake.

The editorial (printed in Tribune Dec. 22; author St. Cloud Times printed it Dec. 16) also falsely complains that cabin owners have not paid their “fair share.” That is false. In more than 250 taxing districts statewide, seasonal property makes up more than half the tax capacity but use far fewer services. In addition, on each dollar of value, seasonal pays MORE to local communities than homeowners.

The St. Louis County Web site shows that:

A seasonal property on Lake Vermilion valued at $361,000 paid $3,540 in taxes last year.

A homestead property on Lake Vermilion valued at $366,700 paid $3,369.

Cabins also pay $40 million yearly in state business property tax, an inexplicable surtax on folks who spend an average of $5,000 a year per cabin in Minnesota’s small communities, revenue that is surely much appreciated.

Finally, tax assessments are based on comparable sales. Today, without recent sales to reflect declining values, many tax valuations are based on bubble numbers — people are being taxed on value that no longer exists. And when they complain to the assessor, they are told, “If you don’t like it, sell.” They can’t in this market.

If the state had not ended LMV, the assessed and taxable values would have come into line eventually, and not at the peak of a real estate crash when very few can afford the gigantic increases in property tax.

Now is not the time to end LMV protection — protection that was put into place to protect ALL property owners from taxes driven by bubble markets.

To set the record straight, most cabin owners are retired folks of modest means, and they are simply being gouged. Those with incomes more than $250,000 a year pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes than the average cabin or hunting landowner — and these are the people who should be asked to pay more during this crisis — not retired folks who are watching their savings vaporize. The end result could well be a wave of tax forfeitures as beleaguered owners let the family hunting land or cabin go for taxes and try to keep their home.

As a state, we would all be much poorer.

Jeff Forester

Minneapolis