Get ready for the anti-tax “Chicken Littles”

Oh boy. Get ready for the anti-tax/anti-government/homebuilder/realtor crowd to start screaming about a falling sky. 

According to WRAL.com:

"An advisory City Council committee on Tuesday recommend doubling the fees developers pay on new construction to generate money for local road improvements and parks….

Developers now pay a flat fee of $1,200 for each single-family home they build, but city officials decided to split the fee into two segments – one for thoroughfares and one for open space – and devised a formula that would increase the fees for an average-size home to about $2,500."

According to the report, the new fees would be calculated on a sliding scale that would rise with the size of the house. The proposal now goes to a public hearing in April and then on to the full council.

The action got a predictable response from longtime Locke Foundation "scholar" and N.C. State professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Mike Walden:

"Any potential tax can slow growth. If we did see the impact fees raised in the city of Raleigh, people who would have bought a house (and) who would not normally buy a house will not (buy one)."

Got that? People are going to stop moving to Raleigh (the home of already low property taxes and real estate transfer taxes) if the city raises its real estate impact fees to the levels being charged in the exploding towns of Cary and Apex in order to build a few more roads and parks.

Maybe we're missing something, but isn't it those very things that the new money will pay for — lack of congestion (at least compared to the northeast and many other more populated places) and open space — that makes people want to move here? Wouldn't a nearby park and a safe, straight road be more appealing than say saving $1,200 on a new $400,000 house? Just asking.