Photo credit: Anderson Mancini @Flickr.com
I have to give Commission Mark Sharpe credit for promoting alternative transportation options. On it's face, rail sounds like a good idea, but take a closer look at how our county currently operates and how we got here in the first place and that rail vision starts to blur.
Hillsborough County Commissioners put the county in the hole over $11,000 with every new rooftop they approve because they don't charge adequate impact fees to developers. These figures came out in this 2007 report from the Planning Commission. As a result we are billions behind for things like roads.
What to do? They know! Ask us to tax ourselves to help pay for roads via a 1% sales tax for "rail" (of which only 37% really goes to rail). As my recent post pointed out we wouldn't be in this mess had this and past boards made growth pay for itself instead of shifting the burden to taxpayers to subsidize their developer welfare. Now they want even more of a bailout.
On the heels of their rail discussion Wednesday, Commissioners had the chance to discuss the audit on impact fees (which are charged to developers to pay for transportation, parks, schools and fire). The audit was performed by the County Clerks's office and presented to Commissioners during their afternoon meeting. Some of the audit's findings include:
Observation 1: The BOCC has not been assured that the impact fees were spent as directed by ordinance 96-29.
Observation 2: The current impact fee assessment for transportation, right of way, parks, and fire networks may not be covering a reasonable percentage of the cost of growth within the County.
But wait, there's more:
Finding 1: The costs to administer the program are not fully funded by the impact fees.
Finding 3: Impact fees were incorrectly calculated and assessed.
Finding 4: Revenue from receipt of permitting fees could be lost or misappropriated.
To summarize, not only do they not charge enough to cover growth (or even the impact fee program itself), some of the money could be lost or misappropriated! If you attended or watched the meeting you wouldn't know this because they didn't even discuss it.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2009.