We have mixed feelings about the recent decision by the Osceola County Commission to authorize a one-year moratorium on transportation impact fees for non-residential construction.

On one hand, it's robbing Peter to pay Paul because the lost revenue for road building will have to be made up in some other way – some of it possibly from the general fund (translated local property taxes). However, the purpose of the impact fee moratorium is to generate construction activity in the commercial/industrial  sector – and that means more jobs for local residents, a benefit and a good thing.

Realistically, though, there are no assurances that the fee waiver will stimulate commercial or industrial building activity despite comments from consultants and engineers that there are projects either ready to go now or that will be planned and marketed now that the moratorium is in place. There also isn't any verifiable evidence that moratoriums elsewhere have stimulated the local building industry.

We also are concerned that the residential sector was not included in the initial moratorium. Granted, there isn't much homebuilding going on now due to the glut of homes on the market already – including foreclosures – but a new home would put people back to work much sooner than a commercial project would, and many subdivisions have already been approved. Plus, there is the added benefit of a new home quickly adding new assessed value to the tax base.

The commission, when it approved the moratorium on non-residential transportation impact fees Jan. 10, did so with the promise to come back in early February and give some consideration to the residential sector. We urge the county to do just that by extending the moratorium to the homebuilders. That inclusion, we believe, would help produce jobs and also quiet the rumblings about a possible lawsuit because not all business sectors would have been treated equally.

Choosing not to follow in the county's footsteps, the Kissimmee City Commission Tuesday rejected a transportation impact fee moratorium, mainly because the city would have had to tap its general fund to make up the shortfall, something officials believed they could not afford to do.

In the end, we hope the county moratorium produces the desired results and is not simply more wishful thinking.