Quote:
Originally Posted by birdiebill
A point that seems to be missing is that developers do not pay for impact fees out of their own pockets. An impact fee is just another cost of doing business, and that fee is added to the final cost of the new home. The higher the impact fee, the higher the cost of the new home. In reality the new home owner pays the impact fee.
|
First, basic business and economics 101: Businesses cannot simply pass on increased costs. Competition prohibits it. A business always charges as much as it believes the market will bear.
If the Developer could charge higher prices without losing sales, he would already be doing it, even before he got hit with a realistic impact fee. If you have studied economics, you know that a demand curve slopes downward: higher prices = fewer units sold. And the Developer does face competition: retirement communities throughout the sunbelt.
But let's assume you are right. Fine, the Developer magically succeeds in passing on 100% of his increased, non-sweetheart impact fee. Then the costs of the infrastructure will be paid for by the new home owners-- exactly the ones necessitating it.
In neither case, are the costs offloaded on the existing Sumter County taxpayers, as the County Commissioners are doing now.