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Times Editorial

Commissioners map out fees battleground

By GREG HAMILTON
Published December 12, 2006

County commissioners talked from morning into the night on Thursday about the hot-button topic of impact fees. While no formal decisions were made (it was a workshop, so real votes were not allowed), the members did signal several areas of interest, making it easier to predict how things will go on the real day of reckoning, Jan. 25.

For starters, none of the commissioners bit on the predictable pleas from the building community to scale back the proposed increases or face the death of the local economy. That includes newcomer John Thrumston, portrayed by foes during the recent election as a bought-and-paid-for shill of the development interests.

The closest they came was to back a suggestion by Commissioner Gary Bartell to phase in increases in the two largest fee categories - roads and schools - over two years to offset the "sticker shock" of a $16,275 impact fee for a single-family home.

Under Bartell's plan, the fees would hit 100 percent of the consultant's recommendation by January 2008, meaning the phase-in time frame would actually be closer to 18 months.

Commissioners Vicki Phillips and Joyce Valentino stayed true to their belief that any delay or reduction in the fee increases shifts the financial burden onto the property taxpayers, a point supported by the consultant's estimate of how much revenue the county would lose in a phase-in.

Phasing the fees in

Increasing the rates on the two categories by only half of the suggested amounts for a full year would cost the county and the school district a total of $19.6-million. That would drop to $10-million if the phase-in period were 18 months.

Phillips pointed out this money is needed for county and school capital improvement projects. Slow down the income and you delay the projects, likely raising their costs while shifting the bill to existing property taxpayers.

Bartell, however, found allies in Thrumston, who sought a three-year phase-in, and Dennis Damato, an indication that the idea will fly next month.

The commissioners staked out their individual areas of concern with Damato focusing on school funding, Bartell zeroing in on cutting the costs of road projects, and Thrumston pressing for more state money for roads.

Phillips and Valentino steadfastly reject the notion that higher impact fees will cripple the economy, noting that the same fears were howled in 2004 when the fees doubled. All that followed was the best year that the local building and development community has ever had, proving that outside forces such as the nationwide real estate boom steer the local market much more than do impact fees.

Damato wants to know how much the school district got after the last fee increase and how the money was spent.

Bring it on, school superintendent Sandra "Sam" Himmel told him, challenging anyone to find waste in the district's budget.

Building costs on rise

It is hard to argue that the meteoric rise in construction costs is driving the need for more school funding. The district built Forest Ridge Elementary School in 2000 for $8.5-million. Earlier this week, it broke ground on a new elementary school that will cost at least $22-million. Citrus needs a new high school, and the price now is an estimated $70-million.

Enrollment is growing by about 150 students a year, and Himmel said she has to provide space, and teachers, for them all. State funds are simply not keeping pace with these realities.

Damato also called for allowing people to prepay impact fees, to give doctors a 50 percent break on fees if they move here, and to give the same discount to existing businesses wishing to expand. His ideas met with lukewarm responses, leaving him with a big sales job for Jan. 25.

Bartell took the lead in calling for more accountability for the cost side of the equation. He wants the county to cut the costs of its road projects, citing the "exorbitant" amount of money Citrus has spent on right of way acquisition for County Road 486 widening and other projects.

Thrumston hopes that Citrus can tap into state grants that are available for regional road systems, potentially cutting the impact fees for new roads.

The problem is, Citrus is not yet at the point where it will qualify for such grants. Plus, it will mean competing with congested counties such as Pinellas and Hillsborough. The grants, while possible, are long shots.

Also, it was noted that Pasco County qualifies for the grants, and still charges a $13,000 transportation impact fee.

Concerned about fees

All of the commissioners expressed concern, to varying degrees, about the economic impacts of boosting the fees, but they stopped short of doing anything about it.

There was talk of having the Economic Development Council use some of its public dollars to evaluate the impacts, but such a study could not be done by Jan. 25.

There is great merit, however, to having the county take the money from the EDC budget and hiring an outside entity, such as the University of Florida, to study the question. The information would be very beneficial going forward, but only if it comes from an unbiased source.

Once again, building community representatives asked the board to create a citizens committee to review the impact fee proposals. And, again, the idea died a quick death as an unnecessary layer of study (the county's Planning and Development Review Board is supposed to perform this function) and as a thinly veiled way to delay increasing the fees.

However, after nearly 10 hours of maddening debate laced with conflicting numbers from dueling experts on costs, revenues and methodologies, the notion of having one set of reliable facts and figures to base a decision on seemed pretty appealing.

But there is a group already charged with sifting through the competing information and finding a consensus that is best for the county.

It's called the County Commission.

The public may not know for sure until Jan. 25 just how commissioners will vote, but they did a pretty good job of telegraphing their intentions on Thursday.

[Last modified December 12, 2006, 06:26:38]