Impact fees for schools
To the editor:
Before we start touting the ventures of increasing impact fees, it’s important to step back and review the purpose of such charges. Impact fees are NOT an ongoing source of revenue for politicians to spend money on projects as they desire-that’s the purpose of general taxes.
Impact fees are a relevantly new concept developed during the high-inflationary years of the ’80s and greatly expanded, particularly in Arizona, California and Florida, during the exploding-population years of the 1990s.
In case our politicians haven’t noticed, we are NOT in a high inflationary period and we are NOT experiencing population explosion.
Rather than reining spending in other county functions, politicians would rather pass the buck to new homeowners and retail projects. Double-dipping on taxes is a lot easier than making tough decisions.
Many communities use millage elections to fund schools and other one-time civic projects. When the project is completed, the millage tax ends. Impact fees used in this manner are totally consistent with the basic concept.
If the school system needs another school or two, the solution is simple: Pass a millage tax or use impact fees to pay for the construction of the new facilities and end the fees when they are completed.
Les Cochran
San Carlos Park