As Chautauqua County officials investigate possible fees for boaters on Chautauqua Lake, we hope they don’t make the same mistakes as were made during the investigation of a taxing district around the lake.

Taxing district talks went on for years and eventually felt exhausting as the multitude of options were poured over in excruciating detail. It was easy to find reasons not to proceed with the taxing district as the talks went on, with community opposition building the longer the talks went on, not the least of which was the thought the county could raise as much as $10 million with the fee. It didn’t take much for lakefront property owners to do the math.

We fear the same thing could happen with the prospect of boat fees.

So let’s clear the decks.

There should be clear agreement on the fact that money needs to be spent each year on Chautauqua Lake maintenance both to manage invasive weed species and to deal with the causes of harmful algal blooms.

The disagreement comes over two questions — what work needs to be done each year and how much should that budget be. Because lake funding is a mix of private and public funding it is difficult to figure out exactly how much is being spent and how much more is needed. For example, through February area foundations had committed $683,332 to the lake, but the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation expressed concerns that, while its board supports the alliance’s work, the foundation’s $150,000 2023 grant isn’t sustainable in the future. Bed tax money this year allocates $815,340 toward lakes and waterways, though only $150,000 of that goes to the alliance for in-lake maintenance. The rest is spent on the county watershed coordinator, watershed maintenance projects, small amounts of money for the county’s other lakes and other smaller items.

By our rough accounting the county has about $833,332 from foundations and the bed tax for Chautauqua Lake. More money may be funneled to the lake in 2024 through bed tax funding changes pushed by Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, in the state’s reauthorization of the 2% bed tax that pays for lake and waterway projects.

While the county is leading an effort solely focused on boat fees, it’s hard to see how that effort can be successful without a larger discussion about a yearly lake plan. How much is needed to support the Chautauqua Lake Association and Chautauqua Lake Partnership for weed cutting and herbicides? How much is realistically needed for research into harmful algal blooms? How much is needed to run Mobitracs and clear weeds from Burtis Bay near the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel? An accounting of how much is spent on the lake now and how much more is needed really is necessary before launching a new effort to raise public money for the lake.

So we ask again, how much is needed to accomplish our lake goals and what will that investment result in? Only when those questions are answered can we begin a real discussion of ways to reach that budget.