Quote:
Originally Posted by birdiebill
Did it occur to you that impact fees can not be used to pay for operating costs or for maintenance to existing roads, facilities etc?
I don't know what the fire protection fee pays for on our property tax bill, but I surmise it is for the services we get from the Fire Department and EMT coverage. If the costs of those services go up, as do the costs for most things over time, either the service has to be cut or the fee for the service has to increase. This may be a situation of increase the fee or cut the number of fire stations, personnel, maintenance, wages, insurance. Just look at what is happening to the cost of gasoline and home owners insurance. Wages increase over time. I surmise the maximum cap of the fire fee has been reached as the fee has increased over time. Now the cost of the services exceeds the $124.00 per taxable entity.
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I know that impact fees can only be used to pay for infrastructure necessitated by the new development, not operating costs. The point is that the Developer's impact fees pay only 40% of the cost of his roads and nothing for the costs of his other infrastructure-- like fire stations, fire trucks, and other fire-fighting equipment. We make up the shortfall through our property taxes and the fire assessment.