Quote:
Originally Posted by Pmarlow
You really need to understand that businesses never pay taxes, they just collect them. These impact fees will be taxes that all users of the business services will pay. So if you expect to by services from local businesses these fees will be included in the cost of the products or services you purchase. Unfortunately though what will also happen is those businesses will not even locate in Sumter county which will mean you won’t be able to get those services or products locally. This is how the real world works. These fees will result in higher cost for all of us and a reduction in the number of providers for us to choose from and is in fact anti business.
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Oversimplification.
The impact fees are one-time fees. The property taxes levied in lieu of increasing the impact fees are recurring taxes.
A business might pass the impact fees along to its customers as a higher price but if I am not a customer then I don't help pay that fee. If property taxes are increased to keep the impact fees low then they will affect me and everyone else even if I never enter the business.
The impact fees apply to homes as well and will be paid by the purchaser of the home. Property taxes in lieu of impact fees will be paid by everyone EXCEPT the purchaser of the home.
If paying a portion of the impact a business has on the community is anti-business then forcing homeowners to subsidize a business by paying for that impact in the form of property taxes is anti-homeowner.
Businesses will open wherever they feel they can make money. They certainly will come to places with tens of thousands of existing customers and tens of thousands more customers planned for the future. If taxes are increased and home sales slow or homeowners don't have as much discretionary income then businesses will begin to see a decrease in sales. Fewer sales means less profit means fewer businesses.
So which is more anti-business, a one-time, targeted impact fee that will be passed along to customers or a recurring property tax that will take money out of customer's pockets?