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Highlands Today

Postponing Impact Fees Might Help Spark Economy

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 13, 2009

Sometimes good ideas have to be put on hold during desperate times, and considering Florida's economic climate, that time is now. We support a bill sponsored by Rep. Denise Grimsley that would postpone impact fees for a set period of time, although we differ on the length of the postponement.

The bill has plenty of supporters and opponents, even locally, but right now we must eliminate whatever we can to give our economy the best chance possible to rebound.

We have doubts that postponing impact fees will have much of an impact, because it wasn't impact fees that caused the bubble to burst, but if there are any negative effects, let's remove them - temporarily.
Highlands County implemented impact fees in 2006 at a fraction of the level they ultimately would be set. Impact fees were supported by county commissioners then because they were needed. The state was requiring new growth to pay for increased infrastructure before approving land use changes. It's called "concurrence" and makes sense. Otherwise, people already living in these communities - like you - where growth is happening have to foot the bill for newcomers and developers.

Grimsley's bill would postpone impact fees for three years. Some who support postponing the fees believe the time period proposed might be too long and the issue can be revisited later if more time is needed. That's true as well, so the postponement time period should be limited.

All that matters is that we get the economy going again. That has to be everyone's priority at this time. We must remove any roadblocks that inhibit growth that will bring jobs to the many unemployed people in Highlands County and the businesses and employees who are barely hanging on.

Postponing impact fees is just one small thing to do. Anything else we can postpone that makes it easier to get things rolling again should be the next issue we address.

Make no mistake, though, we need impact fees. When growth returns to our county, we don't need residents who have lived here for years facing paying for infrastructure upgrades that new growth causes. There's a legitimate reason impact fees were passed in the first place.

For now, though, we can do without. Let's hope if the bill passes that it provides some kind of economic spark to our area.

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