Manatee County, school district should charge 100 percent of impact fees

The education of our children should not be held hostage by asking the citizens of Manatee County to subsidize the profits of the developers. It makes absolutely no sense now or in the past to subsidize the impact fees for new housing construction.

The use of sales tax revenue to reduce impact fees for new construction puts a double burden on Manatee County residents by giving away funds that could be used for current infrastructure needs and increasing the future cost of infrastructure maintenance.

One hundred percent of the true impact fee costs should be applied immediately to any new construction. There should be a moratorium on the approval of any new construction until the voters have their say in the fall.

Combining the impact fee relief with the needs of our education system is akin to terrorists hiding in a school house. Members of the School Board that persist down this path should be impeached and the developers should be ashamed of themselves for holding our children's educational needs hostage to their greed.

It doesn't matter who purchases the new construction; it will increase the infrastructure costs for all. A current resident purchasing new construction makes their home available for purchase. No matter how you slice it, new construction adds to infrastructure costs.

I am not against people moving here, but they should pay for the true impact cost. If new housing were to slow down, the real estate inventory would reduce and the price of current homes would go up. This would be good for homeowners looking to sell and a benefit to the county by increasing the real estate tax revenue with reduced infrastructure impact.

Subsidizing the impact fees inflates housing inventory and reduces the value of existing homes while burdening current residents with the cost of the impact.

Ray Fusco

Bradenton

This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee County, school district should charge 100 percent of impact fees ."