A proposal to exempt local nonprofit swim clubs from the county's property tax would serve the public interest. Including the Columbia Association's pools, however, is a different kettle of fish.

Fitness buffs know that swimming is a great way to exercise the whole body with minimal wear and tear on the joints. It gets kids and adults out in the fresh air, doing something they enjoy. Swim clubs can be a community-building mechanism and contribute to physical and mental health. Whatever reasonable steps local government can take to support them, it should.

As anyone with a backyard pool will tell you, maintenance is expensive and time-consuming. Most of the local swim-club pools were built many years ago and some could use some reconstructive work. Economic and societal factors have also eroded the membership rolls of the clubs.

The officers of one such club noted that the state some years ago passed legislation enabling counties to exempt them from property taxes and urged the Howard County Council to cut them the break and council member Courtney Watson introduced the bill this week.

The brass at the Columbia Association caught wind of it and protested that their nonprofit organization, which operates 23 pools but is excluded from the bill, should get the same treatment. On its face, it seems a reasonable argument, a straightforward plea for fairness.

The differences between the St. John's Swim Club and the Columbia Association, however, go beyond size. Both organizations can always raise membership rates and pursue other fundraising options, but only the Columbia Association has the ability to, essentially, tax residents, whether they use CA pools or not.

Columbia residents pay an annual charge to the association based on the value of their properties and the CA board has the power to raise (or lower) the rate at which that charge is calculated. In short, it has something of a captive audience. If the St. John's club and other independent community pools hike their fees, chances are their depeleted membership will shrink further.

The county budget office estmates that the bill as written will cut county revenue by about $50,000 annually. Including the Columbia Association would easily triple that cost.

The Columbia Association's pools provide the same kind of vital service to county residents that the non-Columbia pools do, but for the county to extend them the same sort of helping hand it would for the shoestring outfits that run neighborhood pools elsewhere in county would be neither practical nor fair.