Florida legislature's latest legislative legerdemain slashes our ability to charge proper impact fees!
That is so wrong
"The Villages" zoning is Latest Outrage
My late mentor, Judge Nahum Litt, compared Florida and West Virginia: "In West Virginia, coal companies own the government; in Florida it is real estate developers."
Retired to Florida, former Chief Judge of two federal agencies (Labor Department and Civil Aeronautics Board), Judge Litt published a blog about corruption in New Smyrna Beach, running off two successive city managers.
If I were a Florida state legislator, I would be your watchdog, not a lapdog.
I would oppose such legislative outrages as the one described in this editorial from the Orlando Sentinel:
Sparing The Villages, Florida’s Legislature shifts growth burden to taxpayers | Editorial
Tallahassee hasn’t been interested in managing Florida’s growth since Rick Scott got elected governor more than a decade ago. If you had any lingering doubts about that, consider House Bill 337.
That proposal to benefit a mega-retirement community called The Villages, will fundamentally change the way Florida pays for growth.
It’s going to shift growth-related costs for roads and other infrastructure from developers to, well, everyone else. Someone has to pay for growth, and this bill means you, the taxpayer, will pick up more of the tab, while developers pick up less through so-called “impact fees.”
The bill, co-sponsored by a Villages executive who moonlights as a state representative, has gotten through the state House and Senate is is going to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is certain to sign it. He loves The Villages.
Impact fees have long been an important part of Florida’s growth management landscape. If a development requires building a new road or widening an existing one, part of that cost falls to the developer, who pays a one-time fee on homes and commercial space.
Yes, those costs get baked into new home prices but it also means the working stiff who’s lived in a place for years is less likely to get dinged with higher property taxes to help pay for a developer’s road.
Some Florida counties, like Osceola, have tried to stay ahead of the game by steadily increasing impact fees to keep up with their explosive growth.
Other counties, like Sumter, have been giving developers what amounts to a free pass for years. Sumter — just west of Lake County — is basically a throwback to the old company mining and textile towns where one powerful person or corporate entity called all the shots.
In Sumter, the company that controls the county (until recently, at least) is The Villages, a sprawling community of look-alike homes, businesses and recreation centers for seniors.
The developers have serious pull in Sumter County, where commissioners kept impact fees for roads in The Villages artificially low, under $1,000 per home. That’s about one-tenth the amount developers pay in Osceola County.
That wasn’t nearly enough to keep up with road demands created by The Villages’ relentless expansion. So commissioners in 2019 raised property taxes across the board by about 25%. Voters rebelled and three incumbent commissioners were booted from office, replaced by candidates who promised fairer taxation through higher impact fees.
Unlike other politicians we know, they kept their promise and in March voted 3-2 to raise impact fees on homes in retirement communities like The Villages from $972 to $1,701, an increase that’s in line with what some other fast-growing counties charge.
New Villages homeowners can easily afford it. The community has a higher per capita income than Winter Park.
But The Villages’ development company was having none of it.
A bill was introduced in the Florida Legislature earlier this year to put the brakes on impact fee increases across the state. One of the co-sponsors was Brett Hage, who earns six figures as a Villages vice president in charge of — we’re not kidding here — residential development.
The bill would limit impact-fee increases in several ways, and it sailed through the Legislature, with plenty of Democrats in the House and Senate marching in lockstep with Republicans to once again chip away at the ability of local governments to make their own decisions.
Lawmakers weren’t satisfied to just stop future impact fee increases. The original bill was amended to make the new limits retroactive to Jan. 1, and it required a two-thirds vote by counties to approve increases.
That does two things: It would revoke the Sumter County increase approved in March andmakes it all but impossible for commissioners to pass the more modest increases allowed by the bill since they now need four of five votes instead of a simple majority.
The bill also will undo Orange County’s recent increases, passed by the County Commission in March in anticipation of the bill passing. Nice try, but this Legislature is determined to micromanage local government, particularly when a company town like The Villages needs a favor.
We’re painfully aware this 2021 lawmaking session has been dominated by sexier, potentially more destructive issues, like making it harder to vote and trampling First Amendment rights.
This impact-fee bill got far less attention. But the consequences for taxpayers could be expensive.
Because a day will come when roads, schools, fire departments and other services can’t keep up. And when the payment comes due, it won’t be the developers who get stuck with the tab, it’ll be you.
Because, just like Sumter, Florida is a company town for developers. Always has been.
Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of its members or a designee. The editorial board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Send emails to insight@orlandosentinel.com.
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