Library Receives Impact Fees

Also on Monday night, Elburn trustee Jeff Humm presents Town and Country Library Board president David Burroughs with an impact fee check totaling $66,123.19. Elburn historian Larry Martin, library board member Dr. Dorothy Dirks, and Elburn trustee Gordy Dierschow seem pleased as well.

Impact fee agreements are negotiated as part of a community's annexation process. They help reduce the property taxes required to keep good government running, especially in areas affected by growth. When communities prematurely incorporate farmland, they lose the ability to compel the payment of impact and transition fees when that property is eventually developed. The end result is higher property taxes for everyone.

I can't imagine a situation where Elburn would annex open land without knowing in advance exactly what is going to be built on that land. Then, and only then, would we negotiate the best impact fee agreement possible for the benefit of our regional taxpayers.

I believe communities that ignore this "common sense" advice, and do so willingly, are acting irresponsibly. They place us all at peril for higher taxes or reduced services in the future.

It is unfortunate that the Campton Hills "activists" apparently do not understand this basic axiom of smart local government.