Shelby blind to impact fees

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Shelby blind to impact fees

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Shelby County suffers from a leadership vacuum. The problems are known, solutions are available, but our leaders do nothing.

Committees are formed and disappear. Mayors annex property, approve more home construction and complain about growth. County commissionersand Board of Education members can't seem to work together.

Let me recount some Birmingham News articles:

Ten thousand new homes are on the drawing board in Calera and threaten to burden the city's roads, schools and utilities. (Nov. 2)

Shelby County schools have grown by 5 percent since last year. School officials are dealing with 1,115 additional students. (Nov. 2)

Shelby County has been designated the No. 1 place to raise children in the state. It's a good place to live and work, we have good churches and good schools, and we will continue to grow for as long as I can see into the future. (Not stated, but part of the attraction to Shelby County is relatively low taxes.) (Nov. 2)

Question: Why not impose impact fees on new development to fund the schools?

Answer: Impact fees are being imposed in Helena but are earmarked for infrastructure. Developers build an average of 300 homes in Helena each year, so there would be a long wait before enough money is accumulated to begin building a school. (Nov. 1)

A group of citizens in Helena sees the need for a middle school and seeks a 10-mill property tax increase dedicated to build a school. Shelby County school officials say they don't have the money to build the school. (Nov. 1)

USS Real Estate, through whose land a planned highway bypass may travel, has agreed to provide $200,000 to $250,000 to the city of Helena to pay for the study of the bypass. The city will pay the developer back through a credit on impact fees in its Hillsboro development. (Oct. 24)

Nobody officially is calling it an impact fee, but $800 per lot in The Village at Highland Lakes will be split between Shelby County's Highway Department and its school system. What the legal papers call a "capital improvement fee" is to be collected from buyers of 770 homes planned for the subdivision on Shelby County 41 opposite Mt Laurel. (Sept. 1)

Money for more than 100 additional teachers is included in the Shelby County school system's proposed 2006 budget, but not a dime for new capital projects. (July 27)

Seventy-three percent of Shelby County voters told their school officials to find another way to finance their capital plan by means other than a 9-mill increase in property tax. At the time, school board member Peg Hill accused Shelby County voters of "becoming a fat calf," and "the people are going to have to get hungry again." (Jan. 14, 2004)

And this from a Jan. 19, 2004, letter to the editor: "The Shelby County plan for growth was to spend money as fast as possible and then turn to Shelby County taxpayers and ask for more."

The plan is working. By starving schools, our government counts on panicky citizens who are willing to increase their tax burden rather than insist on good government. Impact fees are casually tossed aside as too hard, too slow or too late. Tax increases are faster and permanent.

Some developers are coming to understand the solution and are making tentative steps in that direction. They are losing their objections and are approving impact fees for roads or even education.

The only ones who can't seem to figure it out are county leaders. We have limited home rule in Shelby County. If we can collect impact fees for roads, sewers, water and infrastructure, we can collect impact fees for schools.

The city of Hoover has figured it out with its recently enacted front-door fee for schools. When will Shelby County?

Joe Sarver of Brook Highland is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and self-employed. His e-mail is sarverjoe@att.net. For your turn at "My Turn," mail your 600-word commentary to Editorial Page, P.O. Box 2553, Birmingham, AL 35202; e-mail us at oped@bhamnews.com; or send a fax to 325-3345. Please include your telephone number.