Rutherford County pushing for impact fees with new website

RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) – Rutherford County leaders are once again pushing for impact fees, this time through a new website. The goal is to generate funding to keep up with record growth in the area. 

Although the county did raise property taxes by 16% last year, County Mayor Joe Carr said it doesn’t solve the problem. 

“The purpose of property taxes is to pay for the infrastructure that is already in place and the maintenance and upgrade of that infrastructure; it was never intended to pay for the expansion of infrastructure as a result of growth,” Mayor Carr said during the Roadmap to Rutherford County Funding meeting in December.  

Although cities within Rutherford County can charge impact fees to new developments, state law prohibits counties, like Wilson and Williamson, from being able to do the same with limited exceptions.

County leaders hope to change that and are asking residents to visit HelpRutherford.org to sign a petition.  

It’s a measure lawmakers for surrounding districts have tried to change before. 

“To give counties the same abilities as our cities to impose fees on builders or developers, which they’re going to pass onto the consumer, and if you’ve looked at the price of homes in California versus Tennessee, it’s still a deal,” said Rep. Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka).  

However, not everyone is on board with charging these fees.  

“New homes are a result, one result of growth. Taxing new homes is not taxing growth; the growth is already here,” said Chris Jensen, president of the Home Builders Association of Central Tennessee, at the Roadmap to Rutherford County Funding meeting. 

Commissioner Laura Davidson fears how the county will fund future education needs.  

“To find out that we’re going to need to come up with another $400 million this year for schools, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Davidson said.  

She also sees the burden of tax hikes, especially on senior citizens with fixed incomes.  

“The infrastructure, the emergency services, the schools, I don’t know that you could make a tax high enough and it’s not fair to our residents,” she said.  

News 2 reached out to the Rutherford County Public Information Officer about how long the website will remain up, as well as next steps for the petition. She was told those questions would be answered during a Jan. 11 news conference.