Sarasota County Commissioner John Thaxton will sit on a statewide panel to review the use of impact fees. Counties and cities levy impact fees on new construction to pay for growth.

Thaxton was appointed to the 12-member body by Senate President Tom Lee. Other appointees include state senators, school board members, mayors and developers. The panel was formed after a failed proposal to create statewide guidelines for impact fees. Commissioner Thaxton says he was surprised by the appointment, because he’d been an outspoken critic of that idea… finding the approach too “one size fits all” for Florida’s diverse counties…

“To come up with some sort of formula that’s going to fit all those diverse needs I thought was ambitious…and probably the legislature shouldn’t be doing that on their own in a vacuum. At the very least, they should be consulting, in a very substantive way, county government.”

Thaxton says the panel will come up with recommendations on what role state government should play in how counties levy impact fees. The state currently plays no role in that process.

The panel will meet for the first time within the next month…and will present its recommendations to Governor Bush before the beginning of the next legislative session, in March.