By Dana Hart
Special to the Salisbury Post
Ihave been getting some good feedback on the recent articles that I have written. I have two more ready to go in the hopper, but it occurred to me that what I’m about to say here is more important than wet crawl spaces or how construction has changed.
Everyone knows how trying these times are financially. I would hazard a guess that you know at least one person perhaps more who are either under-employed or unemployed. Even if you have escaped the economic downturn completely, the price of everything just keeps going up. So this is the perfect opportunity for me to explain why increasing user fees for building permits would make your taxes go down.
First I need to pose a few questions. When was the last time you needed a building permit? If you decided to add a room onto your house, do you think that your neighbor should chip in and help you with the cost? If your neighbor decides to build a room or a new house or some company from New Jersey decides to build a restaurant, do you think that you should have to help pay their costs?
As much as all of us like to help people — and especially our neighbors — I don’t know many people who want to help pay to build their neighbor a house or help some out-of-town contractor to build a business.
Once upon a time, the Rowan County Building Code Enforcement Department brought in more money than was required to issue permits and do inspections. That money above and beyond the department’s costs went into the general fund and helped to pay for other county services. That user fee helped to reduce your taxes by as much as $600,000 a year just a few short years ago.
Now the tables are turned. Our user fees do not cover the department expenses as they once did. I have requested that we alter our fees in order that the department’s income more closely resembles expenses.
By raising our user fees, you, the citizens of Rowan County, will not be subsidizing builders, developers and the occasional neighbor who is building.
It was suggested that I solicit feedback on my proposal, so now I’m asking. Go to the usual places where you comment, such as blogs, letters to the editor or your elected officials. You can even email me if you like at dana.hart@rowancountync. gov.
Since the downturn in the economy, we have lost three building inspectors and three contract workers. The people who buy permits and require inspections expect a certain level of service. Between issuing permits and performing inspections, we are able to maintain the level of service those people expect, like next-day inspections and same-day permits.
It costs about $65 to perform an inspection. By comparison, most home service businesses that make house calls such as appliance repair companies or your plumber are going to charge at least $75 just to pull up in the driveway. Our highly skilled inspectors can perform not only building inspections but also electrical, plumbing and mechanical (hvac) inspections as well.
For example, a permit to change out a heat pump would cost $30 for the mechanical and $30 for the electrical. One man can do both inspections. The client pays $60 and the citizens of Rowan County pay $5. What if it doesn’t pass the first time and the inspector needs to return? The client bought the permits for $60 but now with two trips the cost is $130 to perform inspections. The client still pays $60 and the citizens of Rowan County pay $70.
The new fee schedule I have proposed raises the minimum permit fee to $40. That alone will take some of the burden off the backs of the citizens of this county.
Just to let you know, we did more than 14,000 inspections last year.
I have prepared a comprehensive fee schedule which when implemented will help to make this department self sufficient and not dependent on tax dollars — thereby ultimately lowering your taxes. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you as the director of building code enforcement. I think we can work together for the betterment of all the citizens and tax payers.
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Dana Hart is director of building code enforcement for Rowan County.