Friday, February 25, 2011

P.L.A.N. Update - New Development Should Pay for Itself‏

Impact Fees Impact You

Every legislative session it seems like there is another debate about "impact fees," sometimes called development fees. This year is no exception. SB 1525: City; Town; Development Fees was introduced by Sen. Russell Pearce (R-Mesa). Some at the legislature think this perennial debate is just another fight between homebuilders and cities, but it's much bigger than that -- impact fees impact you.

If you have purchased a new home in the last twenty years or so, odds are that the price of the home included the cost of an impact fee. The fee would have paid part of the costs for the subdivision's water and sewer lines, roads, storm drains and other infrastructure that you enjoy today. When a developer wants to build another new subdivision miles away, you probably don't want to pay for those new roads and sewer lines, too. That wouldn't be fair.

Phoenix created its impact fee program in 1988 to pay the costs of new infrastructure development in our rapidly growing city. The philosophy is simple: the costs of new roads, water and wastewater systems and other infrastructure should not be borne by residents of established areas; rather, new growth should “pay for itself.” Phoenix’s impact fee program charges the costs of new infrastructure development directly to builders, with credits and offsets available on a case-by-case basis. Impact fees are not a tax; the money that cities collect in impact fees is dedicated only to building the infrastructure that has been planned for the area they're collected in.

Any legislation that makes it harder for cities to set fees or to use them to build what's needed for a development is a problem for not just the city but all of its residents who don't want keep paying and paying for new infrastructure they'll probably never use. Right now the City of Phoenix opposes SB 1525 for those reasons. A vote on the bill is scheduled for Monday afternoon in the Senate. Please call your senator and tell him or her to vote NO. We don't need more changes to this important program.

Source: P.L.A.N.

Friday, February 18, 2011

P.L.A.N. Update - Felons with Liquor Licenses?

A bill that limits citizen and neighborhood input on liquor licenses quietly passed a legislative committee last week. Senate Bill 1460: Liquor Licensees; Records (Sen. Michelle Reagan, R-Scottsdale) was revised with a "strike-everything" amendment that makes numerous changes to the liquor license approval process. Among the changes is a troubling provision that would eliminate input from communities when an existing liquor license is transferred to a new applicant. That would prevent police from investigating people who request a liquor license transfer and make it nearly impossible to uncover hidden ownership of liquor establishments by individuals with a criminal background. The bill also creates new roadblocks for neighborhood associations that want to submit comments to be considered by the city or the State Liquor Board in evaluating liquor license applications. Many other process changes are proposed. Feel free to contact your legislators if you are interested in this issue.

Source: P.L.A.N.

Monday, February 7, 2011

P.L.A.N. Update - Yes, Really, Cities Asked to Pay for State Buildings‏

City Revenue Diverted to Pay For State Buildings

One of the items in last weeks' PLAN message was Senate Bill 1221: Urban Revenue Sharing; Distribution Freeze (Sen. Steve Pierce, R-Prescott). This bill would put a cap on the amount of revenue sharing to cities and towns from state income tax at fiscal year 2010 levels for the next 20 years. Future annual tax collections over the 2010 amount would be kept by the State and used to pay some of the State's financial obligations, including the debt service for the state buildings that were sold with a lease buyback agreement last year.

Shared revenues are a voter-approved system in which the state shares a small percentage of its income, sales and vehicle license taxes with Arizona’s 91 cities and towns. In return, cities are prohibited from having their own local income taxes.

Senate Bill 1221 violates the will of the voters and shifts monies that are used to help pay for police, fire, parks and library services from the cities to the state to pay for the state buildings it sold in 2010.

Last week we had hoped that the bill wouldn't get a hearing, but no such luck. The bill is scheduled for this Thursday's Senate Finance Committee at 9 a.m., in Senate Hearing Room 1 at the State Capitol (1700 W. Washington, Phoenix).

Please contact members of the committee and ask that they disapprove SB 1221. The complete list of the Senate Finance Committee and their e-mails are shown below. Thank you for all you do for our community!

Senate Finance Committee

Members Position E-mail Phone
Paula Aboud Member paboud@azleg.gov
602-926-5262
Scott Bundgaard Vice-Chairman sbundgaard@azleg.gov
602-926-3297
Ron Gould Member rgould@azleg.gov
602-926-4138
Jack Jackson Jr. Member jjackson@azleg.gov
602-926-5862
Lori Klein Member lklein@azleg.gov
602-926-5284
John McComish Member jmccomish@azleg.gov 602-926-5898
Steve Yarbrough Chairman syarbrough@azleg.gov
602-926-5863

Remember to SHOP PHOENIX and tell your legislators to protect City revenues that pay for important services such as police, fire, libraries, parks and street maintenance. Thanks for all you do for our community.

Source: P.L.A.N.