Offering fact, perspective on the issue of impact fees

The debate on impact fees has drifted sufficiently off the rails to require a serious injection of fact and perspective.

At the top of the list is the persistent claim from some in the building industry and legislature that impact fees are keeping affordable housing units off the market. In Collier County, that argument is rendered hollow by the plain fact that we have two separate impact fees deferral programs for qualifying affordable housing as defined in our ordinance. One program is a countywide program for low- income, first-time homebuyers. The other is for owner-occupied, affordable workforce housing and is targeted specifically for Immokalee. This program allows for qualifying household incomes of up to $100,000.

In addition, we have an impact fee deferral program for affordable rental units.

Let me be clear on this point: Now that we have these programs in effect, impact fees simply do not affect the price of houses for low-income people.

Additionally, I am working on a proposal to extend the concept, proportionately, to what is known as workforce housing ? the market that includes many workers critical to the well-being of our area, including teachers, fire and public safety personnel, nurses, paramedics, and social workers.

As we are all painfully aware, growth is both inevitable and expensive. The infrastructure to bring power, water, and roads to new homes ? and to carry away trash and other byproducts of life ? has to be funded and built up front. By any measure of fairness, the cost of doing that has to be borne by those who create the need. That's the simple concept of impact fees.

I don't argue with those who demand strict application of these funds to the construction of the new facilities and not to the subsequent cost of operation. That too is fundamentally fair. I do take issue with those who claim impact fees in Collier County are too high, and the facts are on my side.

Impact fees are rising at a far lesser rate than the cost of either land or construction. While it's true that the median impact fee has risen from $14,132 in 2002 to $17,235 today, that's only half the story.

What you don't hear from those who would do away with impact fees is that in that same time frame, the comparable price of a home has climbed from $341,089 to $491,400. Impact fees have increased by 22 percent (a little over $3,000) while the cost of a new home has gone up by 44 percent (just over $150,000).

Case closed.

Another fact (inconvenient to those who want to disperse the cost of new growth throughout the property tax base) is that counties that do not levy impact fees are at or near the high end of the 10 mil state limit on property tax rates. In Collier County, we have man aged to keep its rate at 3.8772 mils for the past several years.

Although that rate may have to increase somewhat in the future, I remain committed to the concept that growth must pay for growth. I am working hard, through a special task force at the Florida Association of Counties, to convince our legislature to remove new barriers in Senate Bill 360 (passed last session) to our free use of impact fees as a funding mechanism for new infrastructure. Your help in lobbying decision makers at the state level may be required soon. I will keep you posted.

I am deeply committed to the cause of affordable and workforce housing, and am equally adamant about the equitable application of impact fees to the uses permitted under law. However, I will strongly object to any proposal to shift the burden of growth to taxpayers who have already purchased and paid for the infrastructure they use. I will not stand still for a doubling of our property tax rate ? the only viable alternative to the present effective, sensible, and widely supported impact fee structure.

This is a call on those who are seeking to eliminate or further restrict our use of impact fees to douse the false and inflammatory rhetoric. Our system of impact fees may very well need some fine-tuning ? and I'm more than willing to listen and champion change where appropriate. But we can only get there if there is a reasonable debate from which to frame the issues.

Right now, claims that impact fees have created our lack of "affordable housing" are clouding the issue ? to the sad detriment of the very people most in need of bold and honest representation.

Together we are making a difference.

Frank Halas represents District 2 on the Collier County Commission.