Leading Question

Who really pays impact fees? As impact fees, those one-time taxes on new homes, double and triple around the state-at press time, Charlotte County was proposing to increase its fees 251 percent from $2,642 to $9,263-builders are girding up for a fight in the legislature (see story on page in this issue). Many builders say they're already paying their fair share and support legislation sponsored by Republican state Sen. Mike Bennett, a developer who wants to make impact fees clearer and more consistent throughout the state and to require local governments to account for how they spend every bit of the money.

But who's really paying impact fees? We asked a few experts, and the answers show why impact fees will be so hotly debated this legislative session.

"Homeowners pay for impact fees, not homebuilders," insists Florida economist Henry Fishkind of Fishkind & Associates. "It's like stores. They don't pay sales tax; they just collect it."

Manatee County developer Pat Neal points out that most new residents do not buy new homes-87 percent of all home sales here are resale-so it's not fair to say that new residents pay for growth through impact fees. In truth, he says, landowners end up paying for impact fees. "I'm just a middleman," he says. He points to research by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, which concluded that landowners pay the real cost. "Land will be worth more in a county that has no impact fees than in a county that does," says Neal. "You can prove this relationship by observing the value of land sold in the city of Sarasota versus Sarasota County, and in the city of Bradenton versus Manatee County. Builders and developers readily pay more for land in these [incorporated] jurisdictions because of the lower impact fees."

Sen. Bennett concedes that builders are not paying for the impact fees themselves. (Like Fishkind, he says the buyers are.) So why are homebuilders frustrated? Because impact fees make it impossible to build affordable housing, he says. "Osceola raised its school impact fee to $13,000. Manatee County said there's going to be a 30 percent increase next month. In Orange County, Calif., impact fees are $110,000 when you buy a house. How can you have affordable housing for police officers and school teachers? They shouldn't increase fees without going to the voters."

Sarasota County Commissioner Jon Thaxton, who is on the legislature's impact fee task force, says eliminating impact fees will not create affordable housing. "Impact fees have no influence over a price of a home," he insists. "Do you think homebuilders will lower their price by $5,500 if the $5,500 fee goes away?"

According to Thaxton, taxpayers end up paying for more than their fair share of growth because impact fees aren't nearly high enough. Sarasota County uses ad valorem taxes, gas taxes and telecommunications taxes to help pay for capital improvements, and those are taxes that all residents pay.

We asked Bennett if he'd lower his home prices by $5,500 if Sarasota County's impact fees were eliminated. "I don't want to stop or cap impact fees, but we should have a fair adjustment," he replied. Was that a yes or a no? -Susan Burns

IMPACT FEES ON THE SOUTHWEST COAST

Manatee County
$10,196 to $13,169 (depending on number of bedrooms)

Collier County
$7,706 to $11,022 (depending on square footage)

Lee County
$8,789

Sarasota County
$5,539

Charlotte County
$2,642 (proposed: $9,263)

Pinellas County
$2,066

Hillsborough County
$1,051 to $3,080 (depending on number of bedrooms)

(Numbers do not include utility connection fees. Sources: Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota, Manatee, Pinellas and Hillsborough county governments.)

BUZZ WORDS

DATA CHOLESTEROL: The build up of information or traffic that slows down a software application's ability to perform. Source: BuzzWhack.com

EARLY BIRDING: A marketing strategy that creates enough buzz to convince consumers to pre-purchase a new product, not to get a discount, but to be among the first to own it. Source: BuzzWhack.com

MBA: To a small part of the workforce, it's a coveted business degree. To the folks who work for bosses with MBAs, it more often stands for Mediocre But Arrogant. Source: BuzzWhack.com

SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end. Source: BuzzWhack.com

MY FIRST JOB

Floored
John Murse learns the rug business from the ground up.

John Murse is owner of Rugs As Art in Sarasota, which was a finalist in 2005 for National Rug Retailer of the Year. The store is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

"I'm in this business completely by accident. I graduated from college with an engineering degree, but I was also a musician all my life, and rather than using my degree, I ended up traveling all over the country as a side musician with different country music groups.