By now everyone should have received a bill from the Forest Service for the 2012 annual permit fee. Because the proposed Cabin Fee Act (CFA) has not yet become law, the fees continue to be calculated using the existing CUFFA rules. As you may recall, CUFFA dictates that the annual permit fee will be 5% of the most recent appraisal value, which is now the 2008-2009 appraisal. The fee amount will be adjusted annually by an inflation index. Because of some CUFFA fee phase-in regulations, the annual fee in 2012 is limited to no more than 125% of the 2011 annual fee. Since CUFFA is now using the 2008-2009 appraisal values, the 2012 permit fee for all three of the Big Bear Tract lot categories will be capped by the 125% rule. We do not know exactly what each cabin owner's annual fee should be in 2012, because the 2011 fees were slightly different for cabins within each lot category. Therefore, each cabin owner should locate his or her 2011 fee amount and then multiply that amount by 1.25. The resulting amount should equal the 2012 permit fee shown on your Forest Service bill. If it does not, you may wish to contact Katie Nelson at the Forest Service for clarification.
Here are the 2008-2009 appraisal values and CUFFA calculations for the four lot categories in the Big Bear Tract:
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For those of you who feel that the fees are unreasonably high, and that the 10-year appraisal process is too arbitrary and time-consuming, this would be a good time to redouble your efforts to convince Congress to enact the Cabin Fee Act (CFA). For more information about how you can advocate for the CFA, please read the recent post called "Cabin Fee Act (CFA) or CUFFA?"