To Kathy Bryant; Chair – Marion County Commissioners
SUBJECT: Marion County Republican Executive Committee support of revised Transportation Impact Fees
On behalf of the Marion County Republican Executive Committee (MCREC), representing more than 130,000 registered Republican voters we support the revision of cost-equivalent transportation impact fees. As an organization we support free enterprise and on-going private equity investment in our County, however a key pillar of this support is “fair share cost liability” with respect to developers and most importantly to Marion County taxpayers.
To state obvious transportation impact fees have not risen for more than a decade, 2015 last revision, subsequent to the economic downturn beginning in 2009 and prior to the Covid impacts of +2019. As a prudent step in 2015 to entice resi-dential and non-residential development, the transportation impact fees set in 2015 were discounted significantly below the actual cost impacts to County residents; only 20% for residential and 11% for commercial developments of the ac-tual impact fee. Again, both below the needed impact fee cost projections. To date, given the ten-year increase in cost for roads, services, property taxes, etc., the current transportation impact fees applied represent an even greater dis-counted fee than in 2015.
Marion County has undergone explosive residential development, and strong non-residential development, which has adversely stressed our infrastructure as seen in increases in traffic, roadway construction and utility expansion needs / costs.
Again, in a prudent measure the Commissioners hired a recognized expert firm to evaluate transportation impact fees and determine if the data would support declaration of an extraordinary circumstance to allow increasing impact fees to a current cost based on current law (F.S. 163.31801). This statute sets the required evaluation, public notices, as well as other factors for impact fee cost evaluations related to public infrastructure, roadway construction costs, public services, and County levels of service needs. The results of these studies, as required, were presented in public forums.
The result of this study is that current transportation impacts fees, held constant since 2015, have clearly not kept pace with cost increases over the past 10-years. As a point of comparison, the current Marion County transportation impact fee for a 2,000 SF home (one of the most typical sizes) is $1,397 / home. In contrast surrounding counties have updated their fees to reflect the actual cost impact more accurately on their counties: Citrus $3,864 / Sumter $3,000 / Pasco +$6,000 to +$9,000) / Volusia $5,464 / Ala-chua $4,146
The Benesch study also presented data of the required factors to support a declaration of extraordinary circumstances that would meet current Florida requirements to increase fees by +50% to a more realistic cost basis than 10 years ago.
In addition, the study indicates the current impact fees, if not significantly increased, could result in a ~$500,000,000 future funding shortfall that would either be borne by County taxpayers or increased County debt, or both.
For brevity, we have not discussed the many other factors related to impact fees that support an increase.
For simplicity, the cost of living for everyone is not the same as 10 years ago. Impact fees have a nexus to cost impacts on the County, again from a “fair justice standpoint” the cost burden should not be transferred from developers onto the taxpayers. We applaud the Commissioners for correcting this overdue impact fee “discount” as well as support free enterprise and fees set in a fair and equitable manner. We support the raising of impact fees well above 50% as needed to maintain the level of services that our residents deserve without shifting this economic liability on-to County taxpayers.
PART TWO
SUBJECT: Marion County Republican Executive Committee support of revised Transportation Impact Fees:
On behalf of the Marion County Republican Executive Committee (MCREC), we support the revision of cost-equivalent transportation impact fees. As an organization we support free enterprise and on-going private equity investment in our County, however a key pillar of this support is “fair share cost liability” with respect to developers and most importantly to Marion County taxpayers.
To state obvious transportation impact fees have not risen for more than a decade, 2015 last revision, subsequent to the economic downturn beginning in 2009 and prior to the Covid impacts of +2019. As a prudent step to entice both residential and non-residential development the transportation impact fees set in 2015 were discounted significantly below the actual calculated cost impacts to County residents; 20% for residential developments and 11% for non-residential developments. Again, both below the needed impact fee cost projections. To date, given the ten-year increase in cost for roads, services, property taxes, etc., the current transportation impact fees applied represent an even greater discounted fee than in 2015.
Marion County has undergone explosive residential development, and strong non-residential development, which has adversely stressed our infrastructure as seen in increases in traffic, roadway construction and utility expansion needs / costs.
Again, in a prudent measure the Commissioners hired a recognized expert firm to evaluate transportation impact fees and determine if the data would support declaration of an extraordinary circumstance to allow increasing impact fees to a current cost based on current law (F.S. 163.31801). This statute sets the required evaluation, public notices, as well as other factors for impact fee cost evaluations related to public infrastructure, roadway construction costs, public services, and County levels of service needs. The results of these studies, as required, were presented in public forums.
The result of this study is that current transportation impacts fees, held constant since 2015, have clearly not kept pace with cost increases over the past 10-years. As a point of comparison, the current Marion County transportation impact fee for a 2,000 SF home (one of the most typical sizes) is $1,397 / home. In contrast surrounding counties have updated their fees to reflect the actual cost impact more accurately on their counties:Citrus $3,864 / Sumter $3,000 / Pasco +$6,000 to +$9,000) / Volusia $5,464 / Alachua $4,146
The study also presented data of the required factors to support a declaration of extraordinary circumstances that would meet current Florida requirements to increase fees by +50% to a more realistic cost basis than 10 years ago. In addition, the study indicates the current impact fees, if not significantly increased, could result in a ~$500,000,000 future funding shortfall that would either be borne by County taxpayers or increased County debt, or both.
For brevity, we have not discussed the many other factors related to impact fees that support an increase.
For simplicity, the cost of living for everyone is not the same as 10 yearsago. Impact fees have a nexus to cost impacts on the County, again from a “fair justice standpoint” the cost burden should not be transferred from developers onto the taxpayers. We applaud the Commissioners for correcting this overdue impact fee “discount” as well as support free enterprise and fees set in a fair and equitable manner. We support the raising of impact fees well above 50% as needed to maintain the level of services that our residents deserve without shifting this economic liability onto County taxpayers.
Please contact us for follow-up / questions. Thank you for your prompt attention, respectfully.
