To the editor:

Regarding Lee Queen’s July 27 letter:

There are five principal kinds of cost increases experienced by local government:

1. Inflation.

2. Mandates from the state and federal government.

3. Self-imposed new services.

4. Growth-related increases in capital costs.

5. Growth-related increases in operating costs.

Revenues to meet these increases are paid by taxpayers, either individuals or corporations through ad valorem and sales taxes, motor vehicle and other minor taxes, fees and revenue-sharing.

But, these budget items provide no information on how much income is derived from new growth nor how much expenditure is made to fund all the demands of new growth.

My point has always been that our elected officials (and all growth boosters, including the Lawrence Home Builders Assn.) have no idea of how much growth costs (or pays).

Indeed, the city planning staff reviewed the LHBA study and concluded: “The number of omissions (such as not including school district or infrastructure costs), plus the questionable methodology of comparing existing households (which includes renters and households in multifamily units) to households in new single-family subdivisions and the underestimation of revenue an existing ‘average household’ generates for the city, makes the findings in this study suspect.”

A remedy for this would be to conduct a “cost of community services” (COCS) study, which separates and examines income/costs of existing properties and new growth. To my knowledge, growth boosters have never publically endorsed the COCS concept, and the city has never funded one.

Yet, every year, property tax payments keep galloping along at about an 8 percent increase. Stable tax payments are the proof that growth is paying its way.

Larry Kipp,
Lawrence