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Originally Posted by Bill14564
But the developer cannot pass 100% of the higher impact fees on to the buyer. What seems to be frequently disregarded is the impact fees apply to not only to the construction of homes but also to the construction of commercial property.
The additional cost to the home might be about $1,500 which could easily be added to the price of a home in the Villages. Heck, between inflation, the bond, and various state fees and taxes, $4,000 would be lost in the noise.
Commercial property is a different story. There are threads on here asking when a BJs or Costco or whatever might be coming to the area. According to one of the documents analyzing the 2019 study, increasing the impact fee would add $500,000 to the cost of the building for a total of $835,000 in impact fees. A hospital would incur about $1,000,000 in additional impact fees.
While $1,500 might not affect the sale of a home, an additional $500,000 is very likely to affect the profitability of the Costco and may result in it not being built in the first place (not that it seems to be coming soon anyway). I appreciate having businesses and hospitals either in or close to the Villages. I would like lower taxes too, but if an extra $300 per year maintains the lifestyle I enjoy then yes, I am willing to pay it.
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How did you calculate $500,000? We don't know what the commercial properties would pay without an impact study, which Hage's legislation essentially blocks.
In any event, you are correct that new commercial property would be initially somewhat more expensive, but the businesses occupying it would subsequently pay less in property taxes.
Bottom line: somebody has to pay for the new county infrastructure, and I argue that that somebody should be the developers and new residents-- not us current residents. The 25% property-tax increase shows clearly what is going on here-- which is the current residents subsidizing the Developer-- it is he who is doing virtually all the new building. That is what the voters of Sumter County decided, by a 2-to-1 margin, in last year's County Commission election.
As I have said elsewhere, if you don't mind, in essence, writing a check each year to the Developer in the amount of your tax increase, I can't argue with you over property taxes and impact fees. However, I don't think higher impact fees, combined with lower property taxes, would slow growth-- it would just reallocate the costs thereof.