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New fees a good idea, but we're not done yet© St. Petersburg Times published September 4, 2002 Pasco County commissioners today will consider the CliffsNotes version of paying for bigger and better libraries. Forget the tough reading. This is quick and easy: Stick the costs on people who don't live here yet. The commission is expected to approve a new impact fee of $145 per single-family home to help pave the way for $17.8-million worth of new libraries through the end of the decade. There has been no dissent at earlier public hearings. Even the building community considers the impact fees inevitable and has stopped lobbying for a delay. "We were pretty much told, 'This is happening and there's nothing you can do about it,' " said Alex Deeb, a member of the Pasco Builders Association board of directors. "But there's still no way to pay for the other half." It is an imperative point. The county is correct to try to make growth help pick up the tab for the strain on services. But, commissioners must not be lulled into a false sense of accomplishment. Revenue from the impact fee will generate a little more than one-third of the money needed. The more difficult task lies ahead. The commission still must budget approximately $30-million over the next 10 years to adequately address the stressed parks and library systems. Money set aside in the proposed county budget, $900,000, is only the prologue. The library master plan, already approved by the commission, calls for a 30,000-square-foot library in the vicinity of Trinity and a smaller library in Wesley Chapel; expansions at three existing libraries in Land O' Lakes, Dade City and Regency Park; a book mobile to serve rural areas, and additional books, computers and operating hours. It's a more than $20-million plan, with nearly $18-million earmarked for construction costs. Impact fees, though, are expected to generate $6.2-million by 2010. The fees, incidentally, are intended for land acquisition and construction only. The county must earmark other revenue to cover higher annual operating expenses -- estimated at more than $3-million in the master plan. If completed, the master plan will mean greater availability of books for Pasco residents, particularly in fast-growing Wesley Chapel where many people now rely on borrowing from the Hillsborough County Library System. Currently, the county's seven existing libraries hold 505,000 volumes, or 1.52 books per person, below the national average of 2.81 books per person. The master plan recommends increasing the collection to 860,000 volumes by 2010 to meet the state standard of 2.2 books per person. The fees, if approved, will be the first new revenue targeted for libraries since voters approved $23-million in bond issues in 1986 to build the current parks and libraries. This next chapter for the county libraries is a worthwhile investment. But a $15-million epilogue remains to be written.
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From today's Pasco Times Editorial Letters Letters |
