Mark Your Calendars: Impact Fee Work Session, January 12

This afternoon, the State Delegation announced the impact fee work session will be held on January 12th at 10am in the Banneker Room of the George Howard Building, 3430 Courthouse Drive, Ellicott City, MD.

They intend to cover the following topics: county’s public facilities surcharge, school redistricting, the adequate public facilities ordinance (APFO) process, and school construction funding in general

While it is encouraging to see progress on this issue, it is troubling that the work session lacks focus.

We hope the following actions are undertaken leading up to and during the meeting:

1. FOCUS ON IMPACT FEES: We request focus. We understand the work session will cover surcharge fees, school redistricting, adequate public facilities ordinance, and school construction funding in general. We understand all these topics are interrelated and request they are discussed *only* to the extent they impact school surcharge fees.
2. NO SPECIAL INTEREST WITNESSES: We request the State Delegation solicit the views of impartial witnesses to ensure the interests of the taxpayer are protected. We do not have confidence in the traditional witnesses such as the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, Builders Groups, Developer entities, and the Howard County Economic Developer Authority to provide impartial and objective evidence.
3. TRANSPARENCY: We also request the release of any work session related material to the public for review before the work session to the extent possible.