February 11, 2010

Statement By:
Barney Bishop III, President & CEO, Associated Industries of Florida
Regarding Impact Fee Lawsuit

“Florida has one of the highest average impact fees in the country because, for years, local governments had carte blanche to pull numbers out of thin air and impose whatever fees they wanted without any sort of justification. Last year, the Legislature righted that wrong by simply requiring these local governments to validate the accuracy of the impact fees they propose. The
law leveled the playing field and created an appropriate check-and-balance on future impact fees. Now, cities, counties and school boards are crying foul and are attempting, through the courts, to reverse this legislation.

Local government officials are elected to serve the people, not the other way around. By ensuring impact fees are fair and reasonable, local governments are actually putting controls in place that protect their constituents from overtaxing. Instead of supporting this measure, these local elected officials would rather squander taxpayer dollars on a costly lawsuit that, if
successful, would give them the ability to further tax their citizenry.

It is actions like this that continue to scare away new businesses and new jobs from Florida. We need to keep intact laws preventing arbitrary and capricious impact fees that stymie Florida’s ability to grow and create jobs.”