By Antonio Apap

It is time for Santa Rosa County to get serious about impact fees. For example, currently about half of Florida's counties charge school impact fees ranging from $196 in Hillsborough County to $8,596 in Polk County. Although Santa Rosa County is one of the fastest growing counties in the state, our school impact fee remains at zero! Regarding our county school situation, an article in the November 10, 2006, PNJ states that our "schools are bursting at the seams." In the same article, Superintendent of Schools John Rogers is quoted as saying, in the current five-year plan, "if we were to build everything it would cost $150 million." Regarding funding the impending growth in the infrastructure of our school system, Rogers lists $6.3 million in the capital outlay budget, $7.0 million from the proposed extension of the half-percent sales tax, class-size reduction amendment dollars, and borrowing. It should be noted at this point that the School District recently borrowed $18.0 million to build the Bennett C. Russell Elementary School. As we all know, the interest expense from borrowing increases yearly cash outflows, and the money must be repaid in the future. In the article, Rogers did not even mention school impact fees as a source of funding for school infrastructure. The Superintendent and the School Board should have initiated school impact fees to fund required infrastructure when the population growth burst started. If we desire to continue to have a first-rate school system, we should demand state-of-the-art new schools/school expansions, rather than turning "rooms" into classrooms and using portable classrooms as stated in the article.

The Table below compares the single-family impact fees in four other counties with Santa Rosa County.

Note: Highlands data for 1,501 - 2,499 sf. Palm Beach data for 2,000 - 3,599 sf. Polk County data for single-family residence. Manatee County data for 4 bedroom single-family residence. Santa Rosa County data for single-family residence.

It is plain to see from the above table that if county leaders truly support the use of impact fees to pay for infrastructure it can be done! It is a simple matter of "where there is a will, there is a way." I believe our county leaders simply do not have the will to use impact fees for growth related infrastructure. For example, in a September 30th Press Gazette article concerning paying for road projects the article states "Salter says the narrow margin of defeat of the sales tax tells him there is still a chance to try again with a tax referendum." The article further quotes Salter as saying "Then I want to ask the citizens how they want to pay for needed road projects. There are three options the citizens can decide upon. They can call for higher property taxes, increase the sales tax or impose a gas tax. That is the way it will be presented." The option Salter failed to mention is that citizens can call for a higher road impact fee! In an interview in the August 26, 2006, EscaRosa Press, Commissioner Stewart explained that the county had a study which stated that the cost is about $4,300 to build a section of road for each new home. In view of this information, why did the county set the road impact fee at $2,090? Stewart explains the reduction in road impact fees from the study recommendation of $4,300 to the current $2,090 by stating "But new homeowners are given tax credits because they pay franchise fees and gas taxes." The last time I checked all the residents of Santa Rosa County pay franchise fees and gas taxes! A good question to ask the commissioner of your choice is why the commissioners didn't follow the recommendation of the study, and chose instead to back an increase in the sales tax?

Take another look at the wide range of impact fees the other counties are charging in the table above. It is obvious that the leaders of Highlands, Palm Beach, Polk, and Manatee Counties have professionally planned to provide for the growth related infrastructure and the means to pay for it without burdening the current residents of their counties. I believe that building single-family homes is not real economic development. The county should balance residential and commercial growth along with recreation, parks, libraries, law enforcement, EMS, fire/rescue, good roads, and excellent schools. Without a wide range of impact fees similar to the other counties shown above, Santa Rosa County will have more and more people using the same facilities and services, and we will become another county ruined by uncontrolled growth.