Lake County, FL - Tavares - Friday, March 12, 2010 - by Vance Jochim
Last week on Monday, the School Board held a workshop where they discussed a request from the County Board of Commissioners (BCC) to defer 50% or more of education impact fees for 1-5 years. There was a presentation by the Director of Growth Planning, Harry Fix, and the Board asked for more information before they scheduled a joint meeting with the BCC.
Currently, the handout from Harry Fix is not on the District's website, but I assume there will be one posted with added clarifications and facts after Monday's meeting.
I was at the meeting, and have written a long overview of the issue, but I am holding it until after Monday's Special Board meeting at 2pm on Monday, the 15th. Once I see the added facts and get a few answers, I will
post my article on this blog. It is already several pages long and is really like a white paper on School Impact fees, and covers viewpoints from several angles, including the builder's anger at the fee, and the current constraints the school board faces. There is no such overview on the website, or anywhere I have found. Although there are lots of graphs, etc. they are usually presented to the Board with verbal explanations, but those explanations are not separately provided by the School staff.
As for what I have seen, it does not seem possible for the School Board to defer any impact fee collections and still follow their previously announced 5-year capital plan for adding needed student "seats" and classrooms for growth. They have lost several sources of prior revenue, so funds will be short already.
So, watch for my report late Monday (probably evening or Tuesday evening at the latest) here at www.FiscalRangers.com .
Vance Jochim
