Should size matter?
Every proposal about the county’s growth policy includes an impact tax for new residential building. The only question seems to be how much. The current proposal calls for a flat fee that would be the same for residential units by type, but a new proposal would exact a kind of “luxury tax” on houses larger than 4,500 square feet.
In an effort to make the proposed school impact tax structure more progressive, Councilmembers Phil Andrews (D-3) and Tom Perez (D-5) have introduced an additional impact tax to be applied on larger houses.
“I think it’s important to inject progressivity into the tax structure,” Perez said.
Houses over 4,500 square feet would have to pay an additional fee. Perez estimates this will affect approximately 20 percent of the houses constructed in the county. No estimates are yet available on the amount of revenue this would generate.
They want to try to avoid loopholes which would allow homebuilders to skirt the rules, such as not counting an unfinished space in the square footage calculations.
“I certainly do want to include that,” Andrews said. He is considering counting all space with ceilings over 7.5 feet in height in the calculations.
The numbers were not chosen based on a formula, but on general perception of size. “4,500 is a very substantial house,” Andrews said.
“A 2,000 or 2,500 square foot house is quite different from an 8,000 square foot house,” Perez said.
Both suggested that that size of house would be able to accommodate more bedrooms, which, in turn, could lead to more children being put into the school system.
However, the school system has not found a link between house size and number of children. “We don’t see a direct relationship,” said Bruce Crispell, senior planner for Montgomery County Public Schools.
Perez, however, thinks the schools may be underestimating the number of children produced by different housing types.
Noting the price of houses, he said that many families are living in condominiums but would prefer to be in a single family home. Condominiums are typically counted as generating fewer students. “I think it’s important for us to think of new ways to look at this,” Perez said.
Perez also pointed out that areas like Potomac, which tend to have larger houses, stand to benefit from this proposed surcharge. “Many of the schools that will benefit are schools in the Potomac and Bethesda areas, because they are some of the oldest schools in the county,” he said. “We can hasten the pace of modernizations.”
Perez noted that Somerset Elementary in Chevy Chase is the only Elementary school in the county which is being modernized this year.
“We can’t keep doing one school a year.”