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Impact Fees Are Necessary for Smart Growth

Taxpayers get ready to be fleeced again. This time it’s the National Association of Homebuilders (“NAHB”) seeking their own bailout in Las Cruces. The organization is running a national campaign to reduce or suspend impact fees that are vital to building infrastructure and for an orderly growth in cities.

So let me get this straight. Bad and unscrupulous lending and borrowing decisions were the culprits in the real estate market collapse. Now the NAHB is sending a speaker criss-crossing the country including Las Cruces telling local governments of the evils of impact fees. Elliot F. Eisenberg, a representative of the NAHB with a PHD in Public Administration will be addressing the City Council on September 21st and the Building Industry Association of Southern New Mexico on September 22nd. According to a number of authoritative studies like that of the Brookings Institution, there is no evidence that cutting the impact fees results in any increase in residential or non-residential construction. Dr. David Swenson, an Iowa State University economist unmistakably said that NAHB’s housing and economic model is “a victim of flawed thinking. It’s absolutely not possible for a community to grow itself into prosperity by building new homes. It’s not the idea that ‘if you build it, they will come.’ It’s actually the idea that if people come, you will build homes for them.” The “build first” mentality will ruin the budget of a city.

The NAHB is throwing around all kinds of bogus data and statistics to convince municipalities and counties of the need to decrease impact fees for a quick-fix. As Mark Twain so aptly stated: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” So if our city slashes impact fees for essential roads, sewers, water lines, etc., it is obvious gross receipt taxes will have to go up. This will be a disaster for Las Cruces and taxpayers. The NAHB and its members have to remember the 1930′s adage that “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”

Greg Lennes,

Las Cruces

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