For three decades we have been assured by developers that “growth pays for itself,” a blatant lie easily proven by the municipal tax rate we already suffer. Now those same developers are all donating to get the RTA plan passed, and add yet another half percent tax on the citizens of Tucson. Where is the outrage?

There is no way one can reasonably argue that those of us already living here should pay for the infrastructure necessary to handle those who want to live here.

Impact fees are the only way to do this fairly. If you claim the freedom to move into a community, you must accept the expense to that community of you doing so, and that includes not only traffic accessibility, but water and sewer service, police and fire protection, garbage collection, etc.

The arguments I hear against impact fees almost all come from my own side of the political aisle. But I fail to see what is unconservative about expecting an individual to pay his own way through life, rather than demanding that one’s neighbors shoulder part of the cost.