Florida Impact Fee Limits Headed To DeSantis
 

Florida Impact Fee Limits Headed To DeSantis | WLRN

The Florida Senate on Monday gave final approval to a measure that seeks to limit increases in impact fees, which many local governments collect to help pay for growth-related costs.

Senators voted 28-12 to pass the measure (HB 337), with Senate sponsor Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, saying it is aimed at creating “predictability in the marketplace.” The House passed the bill last week, meaning it is now ready to go to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The bill, in part, would seek to prevent impact fees from being increased more often than every four years and cap such increases at 50 percent. Increases up to 25 percent would have to be implemented in two annual increments, while increases between 25 and 50 percent would be done in four installments. The bill also includes an exception to the limits if local governments can meet certain legal criteria --- what Gruters described as “relief valve.”

In addition, the bill defines types of infrastructure projects that could be funded with impact-fee money. Supporters have said the bill is needed because of large impact-fee increases in places such as Hillsborough County and that developers pass along the costs to homebuyers.

But. Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach, objected to the bill Monday, pointing to impacts on local governments’ home-rule authority.

It’s good to employ a state representative.

Doesnt sit well with me when the guy who introduces the legislation is employed by the people it is designed to help.

Be interesting to see if he gets reelected, sure will not get my vote.

Does the bill imply that the needed impact fees should be paid by other people than the homebuyers themselves? Pass on the existing home owners, for example? THAT would say something very clearly to me about what is going on....
I hope the “predictable marketplace” also applies to present home owners.

He won't get my vote either.

Of course any impact fees would be passed on to the new homeowners.

Even though present homeowners benefit from expansion by a strong local economy and lower tax increases when new taxpayers are added. That's why taxes have not increased the past 10 years.

The bill allows up to a 50% (prorated) increase in fees

You know there are residents of Sumter County outside the Villages, whose streets are impassible with potholes. There are residents of Sumter, Marion, and Lake County whose children have sub-par public education, but can't afford private school for their kids. You know there's an entire section of the Ocala Forest filled with homeless people (yes, there are drug addicts among them but there are also just flat out poor people too), who have no resources to build themselves up to a better life, because those resources rely primarily on donations from people who are choosing to spend their money on dinner at Augustine's and trips back to their summer homes up north instead. You know there are tens of thousands of underpaid workers who have chosen to accept a handout from the government, because the federal government is willing to give them a living wage, and if they stay at their jobs they have to apply for food stamps and housing credits and medicaid (courtesy of the taxpayer).

Our tax dollars will pay for all of this, whether the developers pass their impact fee on to homebuyers or not. Whether we spend it on medicaid for the homeless, or improving schools so fewer people NEED medicaid, or fixing roads to people can get to work - since "public transit" is a joke in this state...

I'd like to see a reduction in taxes and an increase in services. That will NEVER happen so long as development continues developing at the pace it develops, while the developer pockets the profits and doesn't share the wealth with the county that provides it with all its permits.

DeSantis and Republicans lost my vote although I won’t vote Democrat. Best government money can buy. If the impact fee doesn’t cover the cost of new infrastructure the commissioners shouldn’t build it and rezone as much residential back to industrial or agriculture. Taxes are going to skyrocket otherwise.

Good information in the above post. However it doesn’t answer an obvious question. Will this bill be post dated so that it reverses the recent Sumter County Commissioners vote regarding impact fees?

When the Developers wrote the bill I would think they wrote it in a way that the impact fees would not be paid.

If I understood the bill correctly, it will be retroactive.

But the bill allows increasing fees up to 50% every 3 years.

Will he surprised if this does not end up in the Courts.

The Developernt generates massive amounts of tax revenue. Here's a story to illustrate the point:

A guy looked at my Corvette other day and said,

"I wonder how many people could have been fed for the money that sports car cost?

I replied I'm not sure;
it fed a lot of families in Bowling Green, Kentucky who built it,
it fed the people who make the tires,
it fed the people who made the components that went into it,
it fed the people in the copper mine who mined the copper for the wires,
it fed people in at Caterpillar who make the trucks that haul the copper ore.
It fed the trucking people who hauled it from the plant to the dealer
and fed the people working at the dealership and their families.

BUT,... I have to admit, I guess I really don’t know how many people it fed.
That is the difference between capitalism and the welfare mentality.
When you buy something, you put money in people’s pockets and give them dignity for their skills.
When you give someone something for nothing, you rob them of their dignity and self-worth.

Capitalism is freely giving your money in exchange for something of value.
Socialism is having the government take your money against your will and give it to someone else for doing nothing.

It sounds like there might be another attempt at getting the current homeowners to pay for impact fees if they get too high to build more homes. I’d be ok with the bill IF building would stop as soon as impact fees increase for new homeowners above the limit automatically. I do not think that many current homeowners want further development, I benefit from less not more congestion, etc and highly resent subsidizing new owners who can’t afford to buy here in the first place. I prefer to chose my own charities, thank you.

Apparently there is a belief that one legislator controls the entire State.....there were 122 Yea votes and 35 Nay votes in the House and Senate, and that one person represents The Villages.....really? Most of those do not represent us. How will you deal with those that were of the same mind (knowledge) of what the increases would mean? Oh wait, the Developer controls them right?

I am sorry but I thought that it was really underhanded to pass on the impact fees to current home owners through increased property taxes. I am pretty sure if that is tried again anywhere there will be a response. I’m ready to bet on it.

Agree with JoMar.

Here are the sponsors of the Bill.....as a Sumter County residents I don't believe we can vote for them.

Rep. Nick DiCeglie of Pinellas County, the House bill sponsor, said “a relief valve” would exist for local governments that can convince voters of a need to go higher.

A companion bill is expected to sail through the Senate under the sponsorship of Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who is chairman of the Florida Republican Party.

The one legislator does not control the entire state but when he submits a bill that directly benefits the developer and he is employed by that developer does that not strike you as wrong, very wrong!

Robbie0723 this has nothing to do with capitalism and socialism. You're pulling at straws with my comments, extracting opinions I never made about facts I never claimed. I did not say I wanted the government to be our keepers. I said "more" services - not "all" services. Also, the developer is a pretty significant source of capitalism. UNLESS they reap the profits without giving back. And then, they are the recipient of capitalism, while the rest of us are the source.

Taxpayers pay taxes every year. Impact-fees are a one-time expense. A homeowner will see an increased impact fee as an increase in the base cost of their home, to the tune of perhaps $600 on top of what they're already paying. Period. Not every year. Just once, in the purchase price. In fact, if that home is re-sold, they will recoup that impact fee increase cost by passing it on to the new buyer. The developer won't have to pay a dime extra, then.

Meanwhile, taxpayers are still paying taxes, every year. The homebuyer is seeing a $200-400 tax increase every year, indefinitely.

I'd rather pay once, and pass the cost on to the next buyer when the time comes, than have to shell out extra every single year, multiple times what I would have had to pay, if I had only to pay it once when I purchased the home.

Your mileage may vary. If you prefer to pay the taxes, let me know your address and I'll send you our next year's tax bill.

Ditto!

Impact fees are a one time fee paid for by the developer (builder) they are not a tax as so often stated in the daily Sun. This of course means all the tax payers of Sumter county will be paying for the new roads that were needed to build south of 44 because the money will come out of the general fund.

Looks like not just our ‘developer’ issue. Statewide.

Lobbyists/businesses are all over government all all levels up to POTUS with $$$

Nor mine. Dislike people in power who do favors for other people with money while flipping the rest of us the bird.

Yes, it is retroactive to January 1st to make sure the impact FEE increase passed by representatives of the citizens of Sumter doesn't effect Mr Hage's employer.

Time to get rid of the last 2 minions on the board of commissioners and put the governing of Sumter County back into the hands of its citizens.

Please! You know how this works. Brett Hage needs some votes...he votes for their bill and they vote for his. And please know that The Family is the Number 1 donator to the Republican Party in the State of Florida. So they have a lot of influence. The governor stops by for lunch with them for petes sake!

This is government overreach. The state government should not be involved with county/city issues.

Governor
 

Sir this state probably has the best and most proactive Governor in the country. You should be grateful for his courage to stand up for the people of FL. If you doubt that then you simply aren't paying attention.

He won't need it. They will probably run another shill in the next election.

If they do hopefully we will know he/she is a shill and vote for somebody else who just might want to benefit we the people instead of just me the developer.

You need to read the bill to understand how it benefits the developer and not homeowners. It is a shame someone who was voted in office by Villagers is more loyal to his employer than us. Read the actual bill and look at the deletions and additions before you praise this bill as being helpful to homeowners.

The bill was penned and introduced to state legislature by an employee of the Villages, to prevent the state from allowing counties to increase impact fees. This would directly benefit the Villages developer, who is one of the biggest development companies in the state.

Everyone(including the TV propaganda paper) keeps saying it's a tax increase?! It's an IMPACT FEE! It's called that, because it's based on the "IMPACT" the development would have on the community and surroundings. It's not a BENEFICIAL TAX, based upon what benefit it would have on all of us(whom will pay for it). If this passes, I hope they take it to court, as I don't believe a higher govt body should be able to dictate to a lower body, what taxes or fees it can impose.

And if it passes, and is retroactive, then I think the commissioners should rollback the entire tax increase that was imposed in 2019! Something I was not necessarily in favor of before. Then, let's see how they want to pay for all the items that were put into the increase?! That includes the roads and infrastructure being built down south. It will speak for itself.

I love people who want less taxes but more services. An oxymoron indeed!
I have not read the bill.
Hage is one of over a hundred representatives who voted on the bill.
I have not heard of any of these reps being called “Svengali.”
DeSantis is a terrific governor and is headed for greater things.

Actually the bill originated in 2019, before the current Sumter commissioners even ran for office. It was proposed by a Tampa area representative due to the issue of new commissioners coming on and raising impact fees by a significant amount. Hage is a co sponsor but he didn’t “pen” the bill. It is fine to not like the bill but let’s be accurate in what we write.

Exactly

I see this as a massive PR failure by The Developer. If the Sumter County Commissioners had introduced small increases in property taxes over the years, instead of the BIG increase, it may have gone unnoticed or at least created less fury. His commissioners may well have retained their seats. Then the Developer wouldn't have needed to rely on the State to resolve the problem to his liking.

If they had reduced the discount the Developer currently gets, AND increased the taxes by small percentages, then everyone would have had to chip in a few bucks, and no one would have felt more than a day's annoyance when the first bill came in.

The amount of work the Developer does in order to expand the Villages is staggering. I actually feel they SHOULD get a discounted impact fee per unit, because of it. But I also feel it shouldn't be as significant as it currently is. In addition, I ALSO feel that taxpayers should expect to pay more every few years, rather than pay stagnated taxes for 14 years and then get a sudden shock to their systems.

A bit of both would have gone a LONG way to make this a seamless, painless shift in funds from individual to county/state. The government was in charge of making this happen, and they chose the wrong way of doing it. And now we are ALL paying the price. Taxpayers and Developer.

Well here is the facts. The developers have u pay for development of the land in bonds. The builders sell the house at 2.5 X cost and walk away with over 50% net profit.
It’s really a shame that the developers are crying poor when they should step up and pay for the impact fee they have created. School, roads and medical coverage along with fire and police.
They have to give that fee to the county they build in and not the state.
Then maybe the system would be far for all

So what's the problem ? Object to the Developer making money ? Be a developer yourself. Free country.

Every time we pay our Sumter County property tax, we are, in substance, writing a check to the Developer in the amount of our 25% property tax hike. That tax hike was enacted by the Developer's puppet Commissioners to protect his sweetheart impact fee.

For a good description of the Developer's latest maneuver to protect that sweetheart impact fee, click here: In new bill, The Villages win and taxpayers lose - Orlando Sentinel

Keep this in mind when State Representative Hage is up for re-election in the Republican primary, along with the Developer's two remaining puppet Commissioners: Breeden and Gilpin.