Hoisted from the Comments: Lacefield vs. Pagnucco

For those readers who missed it in the comments section, this exchange between myself and County Executive spokesman Patrick Lacefield about the county's proposed stimulus package is worth reading.

Lacefield:

Don't believe everything you read. The Washington Post issued a correction/clarification today that makes clear there is NOT lost revenue from the proposal. Up to $50 million in impact taxes and permitting fees would be DEFERRED for a year for commercial and residential projects to help businesses stuck in recession mud and preserve jobs. Actually that $50 million is an estimate of what County govt. would take in if the economy is humming. Since it's decidedly not, even the deferral dollars are nowhere near that amount. In other words, we are deferring money that, mostly, we aren't getting because projects are not moving forward, something this initiative hopes, modestly, to affect. Permitting fees are an Enterprise Fund (that pays for Permitting Dept. expenses). Impact fees are in the capital budget. And so even this modest deferral has next to nothing to do with the County operating budget, much less the schools operating budget. The County Executive was looking to provide a modest boost for County businesses without it costing much at all. Since this is only a deferral, this proposal does just that.

Pagnucco:

Mr. Lacefield:

I consistently used the terms "delayed" and "deferred" to describe the disposition of the revenues. Your problem on that issue is with the Post, not with us.

But let's assume for a moment that you are correct: Business is not paying many of these fees now. What stimulus is produced by deferring fees that business does not even pay? In all my time in the building trades, I have never heard of a contractor creating a job because he was allowed extra time before refiling a building permit!

If the stimulus package has any value to business at all, it must involve actual (if only temporary) relief from fees. And if it does, the delayed revenues must be made up somehow. That is why the timing of the lost COLAs coming right before this stimulus announcement matters.

And that gets to the root of the problem. Someone in the Executive Branch needs to be able to connect these dots and provide good advice to Mr. Leggett. Someone needs to say, "Hmmmm... The employees just gave up their raises. Now is a bad time to bring in business and hand out nice stuff." It's just good political common sense. But no one did that. Why?