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Get impact fees right if hope to pass sales tax

Officials need to let projects, not politics, determine amounts

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No doubt a public hearing with specific dollar amounts for proposed impact fees would be more meaningful for Beaufort County officials.

The council will hold a public hearing July 24 on impact fee increases, but won't see specific figures until August.

But that doesn't mean County Council can't and shouldn't hold other hearings later when the amounts are determined.

And it doesn't mean the council can't benefit from hearing July 24 what people think about the current level of fees.

The most important thing in this process is that any impact fee increases need to be more than just window dressing to help get a 1 percent sales tax to pay for road projects approved by voters. Project lists and their costs should determine the fees.

The question is not as simple as "are fees going up before I say yes to a sales tax?"

The questions to be answered from the voters' perspective are these: "Are fees going up enough and does the county need the 1 percent sales tax?"

The last question is particularly relevant given what happened after county voters narrowly rejected a sales tax for road projects in 2004.

Following that Bluffton officials went back to developers and got more money from them to help pay to extend Bluffton Parkway westward to S.C. 170, one of the major projects on the 2004 list. Through a series of negotiations, eight developers in the Buckwalter and Jones tracts agreed to pay $900 per home and allow special tax districts in undeveloped areas. That resulted in Bluffton contributing nearly $8 million for the project.

The county also put in place a 2.5 percent admissions tax to help pay for road projects, including Bluffton Parkway. County and municipal impact fees, including fees from Hilton Head Island, also are being used.

As the new sales tax project list stands now, the tax would be in place for six years and would be used to pay for about $147 million in road projects countywide. In southern Beaufort County, the money would be used to pay to extend Bluffton Parkway eastward ($50 million); to extend the widening of U.S. 278 and build frontage roads ($38.7 million); and widen S.C. 170 ($17.7 million). Town of Hilton Head Island officials are asking the county to add two projects: resurfacing William Hilton Parkway and reconfiguring the Squire Pope Road intersection at a total cost of about $6.7 million.

Countywide, the referendum project construction costs, plus bonding, contingency and inflation costs, total an estimated $204 million. The sales tax would raise about 72 percent of that amount. (That doesn't include the Hilton Head projects, and County Council has yet to sign off on the final list for the referendum). Those numbers could change before the referendum is set as the county gets better estimates on construction costs.

It's also important to understand that state law lays out rigorous requirements for determining impact fee amounts. Those requirements start with the project list and estimated costs. Impact fees can't pay for existing problems.

County and town officials have come up with a complex funding plan for its road projects list that looks to eight different funding sources at the local state and federal levels in addition to a local sales tax. Impact fees are a critical part of that and need to hit the right mark if officials hope to get a sales tax passed. This isn't about compromising with developers.

Officials struck out with voters on a sales tax the last two times. They need to make sure the pitch is right in November.