Good economic sense

Dear Editor:

People opposed to zoning always state that taxes will go up if we have zoning. I’m not sure where they get that impression and would like for them to document it.

The costs to the county would be mostly to pay for a zoning administrator. The Zoning Board of Appeals is a voluntary position with no salary or cost. An administrator would cost approximately $50,000 a year. With a $16 million budget for the county that would increase our budget by well under half a percent. These costs could be absorbed by cutting other items in the budget, not necessarily by increasing taxes.

In the long run, our taxes would increase less if we had zoning and impact fees were adopted than if zoning were defeated. Otherwise current taxpayers would be paying for the increased services for new residents. There is little doubt that new residents require more in services than they pay in taxes. That is the reason for impact fees, to offset the difference.

If your main concern in the zoning debate is how quickly your tax rate in the future will increase, then zoning makes economic sense. Taxes will go up whether we have zoning or not. With zoning, they will go up less, not more, than if we do not have zoning.

As a taxpayer in Morgan County, I am not willing to pay the increased costs of having a large influx of new residents. Let them pay their fair share and not burden those of us already living here. Zoning makes economic sense. I am voting yes on November 2 and urge all residents concerned with higher taxes to do the same.

Gary Brock
Great Cacapon