Impact

fees could help fund Fayette County's

jail/courthouse construction, but more questions

have to be answered, and time may be running out.

How

much help can be gotten from impact fees depends

upon numerous factors, county commissioners

learned during their annual planning retreat

Saturday. The fees are charges levied against

developers to help pay for new government

facilities and services made necessary by their

developments.

County

attorney Dennis Davenport told commissioners

Saturday that the county can use impact fees to

pay for the jail, but only the part that will be

made necessary future growth, not the part that

is necessary already because of previous growth.

Because

the jail, built in 1981 to house 86 inmates a

day, is now housing about 200, the portion of the

work that would expand capacity to 200 must be

paid by current residents, and impact fees can be

used only to help defray the cost of housing for

about 259 more inmates per day that are expected

in the future.

But

how much help the county can expect from impact

fees depends on the answers to some other

questions:

Can

Fayette's cities be persuaded to allow collection

of jail impact fees from their residents?

Commissioners expressed doubt, but commission

Chairman Harold Bost said he wants to talk it

over with city leaders anyway.

"I

want to go to the cities and give them the

opportunity to participate," said Bost,

adding that the jail will serve the entire

county, not just residents of the unincorporated

area. "I would like to give them the

opportunity to tie into this thing and help fund

it," said Bost.

Commissioner

Herb Frady suggested that if cities don't help,

the county should charge them a daily rate ($40

charged to the cities' 100 inmates, for instance,

would raise $4,000 a day) to house prisoners

their police departments arrest.

Can

a bond issue for the jail be structured to factor

in yearly impact fee payments?

Early

payment of a bond requires refinancing, which

carries a price tag, said finance director Emory

McHugh. But if the county issues a smaller bond

based on anticipated impact fees, and then slower

growth brings about lower impact fees than

anticipated, there will be a shortfall in paying

for the jail, commissioners said.

According

to state law, must the county have an overall

capital improvements plan that includes the jail

in order to charge fees for its construction?

Commissioners

directed Davenport to research that question, and

asked Chris Venice, chairman of the Impact Fee

Committee, to estimate how much impact fee the

county could charge for each new home, under

state law, to help pay for the jail.

They

hope to settle on a method for paying for the

jail and courthouse by the end of this month.

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