Front Page  »  

SLO County fees skyrocket following more than 8% salary increases

November 29, 2023

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo County residents will see many fees skyrocket in 2024, with county staff forecasting a 9% increase in revenue from fees. The Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Tuesday to approve the bulk of requested fee increases, with plans to bring proposed fee increases regarding building and planning back early next year.

Staff’s reasoning for the increases is to cover the cost of providing permits and other services. In 2022, the county projected an 8.1% increase in county payroll, boosted primarily by large increases in the salaries of management staff and officials.

While many departments elected not to raise fees, the Planning and Building Department fees are slated to raise by 21% and SLO County Parks by 103%. Of the 2,519 fees currently in the county, 25% are expected to increase and 3% to decrease. In addition, the county plans to add 47 new fees and delete 22 fees.

During Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg questioned proposed increases in building fees while the county is promoting an increase in low-cost housing. She wanted to pull three planning and building fees for further review: the technology fee, the initial deposit fee and the consultant management fee.

After noting that their constituents are already facing steep cost of living increases, Supervisor Debbie Arnold said she was opposed to the fee increases without first looking at cutting costs.

Ortiz-Legg then made a motion to approve all proposed fee increases aside from the planning and building department fees, which will be discussed in January or February.

The board then voted 3-2 to approve the motion, with supervisors John Peschong and Arnold dissenting.


Loading...
Subjects:
Related:


19 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

If the leaders and politicians in charge of running this state truly cared about affordable housing and homelessness they would take a second look at their money grabbing policies and how it’s negatively affecting homelessness and lack of affordable housing.


42

The county isn’t the only government agency increasing fees. The Cambria Community Service District has substantially increased fees.


30

“Why are you raising salaries for the already overpaid county payroll?”


“Because punitive fees increased.”


“Well, how did that happen?”


“Easy. The overpaid county employees who authored 2519 separate punitive fees did it!”


There it is,folks. You get exactly the government you voted for. We tried to warn you!


45

It feels more and more like my local and state governments don’t want me here.


43

It doesn’t take a genius, with “the technology fee, the initial deposit fee and the consultant management fee” along with the others listed on the above chart and yet these same supervisors and officials want to spend more money figuring out why housing costs are so high. No surpise the first item listed for all fee increase explanations is “Increase in Salaries”.


41

Greedy government elites think we the taxpayers are their serfs.


66

Just wait until the city of SLO gets into the act with its Climate Action Plan to require just about every building in the city limits to “update” its heaters, refrigerators, windows and just about every appliance so some bureaucrat can feel good about himself. The fee for a new hot water heater is a whopping $800. That is in addition to the cost of the heater, installation of it and disposal of the old one. New windows to replace old single-pane windows? $600 permit fee and a blueprint of your house. Considering the thousands of these requirements, one can easily see” Climate Action” is just another way for the city or county to make money – literally millions of dollars – at the expense of property owners and renters. But don’t worry, our landfills are ready and eager to absorb thousands upon thousands of working but now banned appliances. These mandates are an ecological disaster but hey, local government needs the money so it must be ok.


84

Look at what the State requires under the building codes and in particular the CalGreen Code. The State inserts into the building codes mandatory requirements for all buildings, which increases the costs of development. Requirements that at one time were discretionary as part of the planning process (e.g., EV ready, solar panels) are now mandatory as part of the State building codes.


39

This isn’t rocket science, the time to raise the fees is when very few are exposed to them. Afterwards when thing get going the new people with money don’t care.


-43

Sorry that the truth is negative but this area is going to change and government has to become very expensive so they afford housing too. The alternative would be to have offshore processing, let’s say in India or the Czech Republic, you know just like when you order propane, computer support and most anything that needs a person contact, including the Planning Department. Most every human contact, excepting hospitality can be online, including medicine these days. And we wonder why identity theft protection has become a growing industry.


-24

The plan review cost is almost the same cost of the consultant preparing the darn plan? This is out of hand.


76
1 2