User:Jdelmer/sandbox

Resultant planning changes, coss or degradation of services, new fees

Due to the reduction in revenue generated from property tax, local governments have become more dependent on  sales taxes for general revenue funds, which some maintain has resulted in the “fiscalization of land use”. The fiscalization of land use is the incentive for local governments to attract new commercial developments such as big box retailers and car dealerships instead of residential housing developments. The cause of this trend is because commercial developments generate revenue for the general fund through sales tax and business licenses tax. The jobs and ongoing sales tax those stores provide may discourage growth of other sectors and job types that may provide better opportunities for residents. Office and retail development are further incentivized because they do not cost the local governments as much as residential developments in terms of public services. Additionally, cities have decreased services and increased fees to compensate for the shortfall, with particularly high impact fees levied on developers building new houses or industrial outlets. Impact fees are a way to impose the cost of the additional services and infrastructure that new developments will require. These costs are typically shifted to the building's buyer, who may be unaware of the thousands in fees included with the building's cost.