Elite Country Clubs - Enviable Subsidies

You may have read about subsidies to oil companies or my discussion on why alternate energy subsidies are good for competition. Here is the other side. The Boston Globe writes about property tax breaks up to 75% for country clubs. The property tax is justified by saying "You have to look at it like it's a good thing for the preservation of open land."

But golf courses and country clubs are to open land what my ice cube tray is to Glacier National Park. They are small, artificial, and heavy polluters. Tons of fertilizer and fresh water is used to make the greens green and the fairways fair. If the taxpayers are paying for preserved land, give them forest.