Get Ready for Massive Redistricting and Transfer Tax Increases

Unfortunately, the work session on impact fees became less about impact fees and more about transfer taxes and redistricting.

The HoCo State Delegation would rather displease taxpayers than developers. This was the basic takeaway of Saturday’s work session. In a perfectly curated hearing schedule, the State Delegation managed to change the discussion from Impact Fees (what developers have to pay) to transfer taxes (what you, the taxpayer have to pay).

Also, get ready for redistricting coming to a Polygon near you. Some members of the delegation decided to focus on “unused” school capacity to distract from the larger concern- county schools are overcrowded and developer profits have been subsidized over $500 million over the course of the past 14 years. Interestingly this is equivalent to the $500 million in deferred maintenance the school system faces.

The hearing was essentially a blame the Board of Education for not redistricting session.

Unless the community continues to push for higher impact fees the following will take place:

• Token impact fees increases (maybe $2.50 instead of the $8 per square foot we need) tied to loopholes and some ridiculous redistricting requirement and transfer tax increase.
• County leaders and their lobbyists have commissioned a report by a consultant called Urban Analytics, which will be used to weaken APFO by claiming "it has adverse impacts on revenue".
• This claim will be highly salient because the county’s budget is in bad shape due to years of developer subsidy and the projected recession.
• The Spending and Affordability Report will also target APFO and perhaps not mention impact fees as a potential source of revenue (see 2018 report).
• These carefully orchestrated events will allow the developers to simultaneously manage to kick the can down the road and weaken APFO.