Howard County Delegation
January 31, 2018
George Howard Building
Ellicott City MD
Sierra Club Howard County Position Statement
Ho. Co. 12-18
Ho. Co. 12-18 Howard County-School Facilities Surcharge-Rate Alteration
By: Chair, Howard County Delegation
FOR the purpose of authorizing the County Council of Howard County, for certain fiscal years, by ordinance, to increase by a certain percentage a certain school facilities surcharge on residential new construction where the capacity utilization of a school or school region is a certain percentage at the time a building permit is issued; defining certain terms; and generally relating to the school facilities surcharge in Howard County.
As stated in our previous testimony, Sierra Club strongly supports raising surcharges on developers in order to accommodate appropriately funded public facilities needs. Severe overcrowding and creative student reshuffling is what happens when you have a county that has not addressed the necessary APFO requirements. Howard County is a text-book case of this type of neglect.
At current county development impact fees and excise tax rates, how does Howard County compare? At $2.42 per square foot in FY ’16, the amount due for a 2,500 sq. foot house would be around $6,050. For Anne Arundel County, the fee for the same-sized house would be $12,275. Without reference to house size, the fee in Calvert County: $12,950. Charles County: $14,095. PG County: $22,757.
For Montgomery County, the taxes and fees in FY ’16 were $40,793. We should add that in Montgomery County, the school excise tax is increased by $2 per square foot for units between 3,500 - 8,500 sq. feet.
The cost of development should be reflected in the impact fee levied on the developers who profit from building the housing units. Having the developers pay more for their own impacts would also speed up improvements to infrastructure.
Currently, too much of the improvement costs are shouldered by the taxpayers, who are basically subsidizing the developers, creating a windfall for the profiteers on the shoulders of Howard County citizens.