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Improvements should help needy, not city
© St. Petersburg Times, Pasco County routinely receives requests from charity groups to waive its impact fees on new construction. The answer is just as routine. Sorry, but no. The county took the same stance with the Pasco School District for several years until the Attorney General's Office opined otherwise. So, it is peculiar to see Pasco County government administrators ask Dade City to do just that. As part of the just-approved multimillion-dollar improvements to Tommytown, the county asked the city to kick in the cost of water and sewer impact fees for the neighborhood, which is outside Dade City's municipal limits, but within its utility service area. Of the 400 home sites, the city has 280 water customers and 20 sewer customers there already. The tab, according to the city, comes to $559,000 in impact fees to connect the other neighborhood residents. Meanwhile, the city is contributing $1.5-million to a $4-million upgrade of its sewer system to handle increased capacity, including new customers from Tommytown. "In my opinion, the city is already making an extremely significant contribution to the Tommytown project," City Engineer Jose B. Gil told the City Commission in a July 20 memorandum. So, the city's response to the county? Surprisingly, it wasn't: Sorry, no. City commissioners asked for a joint meeting with the county to discuss the options. A face-to-face meeting among elected officials would be worthwhile considering most communication has been via fax or terse conversations among the individual staffs. The improvements -- new sidewalks, roads, water and sewer services for the largely Hispanic population in a 78-block area -- are being financed with federal Community Development Block Grant dollars. A rebate from the city does not translate into a substantial cost savings since the County Commission already decided to apply for $7.5-million in loans, to be repaid over 20 years, to cover the infrastructure upgrade. More importantly, though, the city staff began researching an attractive suggestion from City Commissioner Bill Dennis to reduce the monthly utility rates to Tommytown after the project is completed. The legality of the maneuver still is to be determined, but the potential to reduce the rates to Tommytown exists because the city, as it is allowed to do under state law, charges higher water and sewer rates for non-city residents. In this case, the rate is 50 percent higher. The city's monthly rate for 4,000 gallons of water, plus sewer service, is $25.10 for city residents and $37.65 for customers outside the city limits. The idea is worth exploring because reducing the rates benefits needy residents, rather than a government entity. That has been part of the ongoing argument -- the suggestion that Dade City is the beneficiary of the Tommytown improvements because it will pick up new utility customers and therefore new revenue for its coffers. Such thinking is misguided. The federal grant program financing the improvements is intended to benefit low- and moderate-income people. The benefit goes to the people who live in Tommytown through a substantially better quality of life. As an offshoot, it will bring new private investments to the area and accompanying higher property values. That will bring more tax revenue to the county, but such growth is expected to be minimal. Helping the needy is the right thing to do. It should not be construed as a government windfall.
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