Manatee County school board wrong to link sales tax, impact fees

Charlie Kennedy, Manatee County School Board, shakes hands with commissioners Robin DiSabatino and Carol Whitmore, after a vote by the commission to support a recommendation by the school board to reinstate impact fees to pay for schools in January 2016.
GRANT JEFFERIES/Bradenton Herald — Charlie Kennedy, Manatee County School Board, shakes hands with commissioners Robin DiSabatino and Carol Whitmore, after a vote by the commission to support a recommendation by the school board to reinstate impact fees to pay for schools in January 2016. GRANT JEFFERIES/Bradenton Herald gjefferies@bradenton.com

The March 24 letter by Nancy Williams and the March 15 letter by Norman Nelson are right on point! How can our school board even contemplate associating a sales tax with impact fees? This is totally wrong and convinces me to definitely vote "no" on the upcoming sales tax extension! I suspect that many others will feel the same.

It is my suggestion that impact fees should be doubled or tripled and the 0.5 percent sales tax be dropped. Let the new homebuyers pay their own way. Do not put the bill for new schools, fire houses, roads, water and sewer lines, etc., on the existing community members.

There is nothing wrong with the Manatee housing market. Just look at the 30- to 60-page advertising supplements in the Sunday paper. The real-estate business is booming with tens of thousands of new homes already approved! No financial help is warranted!

William Follmer

Bradenton

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee County school board wrong to link sales tax, impact fees ."

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