After Killing the Golden Goose, How many City and County Employees will be Laid Off?

By Carl Schroeder, PAC Chair, Kadon Land Company

Personally, I never enjoy hearing the words “I told you so. ” When I hear that, it means I was wrong. So I won’t tell you, “I told you so,” even though I just did.

The home building industry drives the economy on a local level. However, home building is hurting. We won’t meet our projected new home permits for 2007 that was anticipated to be about half the permits pulled in 2005, our peak year.

If you factor in a resale market with over 10,000 houses for sale, (with over 3,000 of those units unoccupied), throw in an unknown number of foreclosures, you have a problem that trickles down to just about every business, government entity and resident in our community.

We need to earn money before dollars can be spent and trickle down in the local economy.

Pima County , the City of Tucson, and the towns of Marana, Oro Valley and Sahuarita tax new home buyers in their respective communities through Impact Fees.

Seen by elected officials as an easy source of funding, they waste no time during a good market. Local legislation added tens of thousands of dollars onto the sale price of a new home while creating the impression they were tough on home builders and land developers.

All along, it is the new home buyer who ultimately pays those fees.

The new home buyer doesn’t even get a piece of paper in exchange for paying Impact Fees. Although we don’t see results (i.e. new infrastructure built) for five, 10, or even 20 years out, the toll on the economy is now.

Why can’t Pima County and every municipality within its borders recognize when it’s time to offer concessions to the industry that pays a huge portion of their bills and funds their operations?

They have successfully crafted an image that those associated with the home building industry are “the problem” in our community. I contend that they have lost sight of our overall and beneficial contributions to the community, economy and local charities. They may still, to this day, be having a difficult time understanding the connection.

Now that their cash flow has been cut, will they cut off their own noses to spite their public “face?” Or, will they offer some temporary, reasonable concessions before reaching crisis layoffs?

Let’s see how they tighten their own belts as building permits and related fees continue to fall.

Did I forget to mention they still want to talk about affordable housing?