The four most common ways counties receive money for improving our schools, police and fire departments, roads, parks, libraries, etc. are through the federal and state governments, local sales taxes, property taxes and mitigation fees. To explain the latter, building mitigation fees"are the fees our local government charges builders and developers to manage their future impact on county services. Different counties charge higher or lower mitigation fees according to what they feel builders should pay. It's pretty arbitrary - some of it the good old boy pat on the back. El Dorado County has some of the highest in the Mother Lode and we have some of the very lowest. Developers hate to pay high fees of any kind because it cuts into their greedy profit margins, so of course they love counties like Amador.
Here are my thoughts: Let's raise ours to the highest that can be charged. I know that developers like Gold Rush, New Faze and all the rest on the horizon waiting to take a big bite out of our county and put further undo strain on our county services might not like it. But it's our community, you know. By keeping our county services in front of developments, their impacts won't hurt quite as much and won't have the taxman knocking on our doors. If all this makes sense to you, call or write your supervisors and tell them so. You can find out who your supervisor is and how to contact him by calling 223-6470. Plus, this move might slow down these lovely developers a bit.