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?