On top of its other problems, Beaumont may owe more than $60 million over its past failure to collect regional transportation fees.
City officials have called a judge’s 2014 ruling “mistaken” and appealed, but interest on the penalty continues to add to the potential tab.
The judgment resulted from a lawsuit by the Western Riverside Council of Governments, a regional agency that manages funds cities charge developers to pay for improving roads.
The suit alleged that Beaumont didn’t pay the money, known as Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fees, or TUMF, from 2003 to 2009. Instead, the city issued bonds to pay for road projects and allowed developers to add assessments to the property taxes of new home buyers, which paid off the bonds.
Why? Orange County Superior Court Judge David R. Chaffee said in court in 2014 that when Beaumont didn’t collect transportation fees, it saved developers nearly $9,000 per house. The savings made the city a more attractive place to build, and using city-issued bonds to pay for roads, sewer lines and other infrastructure meant developers avoided more up-front costs, he said.
The city argued at the time that $66 million worth of roads developers built in Beaumont – financed by bonds – should be subtracted from its share of regional transportation fees.
Meanwhile, public records show that companies owned by top-ranking city officials collected consulting fees whenever bonds were issued.
The practical effect of the city’s alleged practice was to pass more costs on to people who bought homes in new developments as construction boomed and the city’s population swelled, the judge said.
Chaffee also criticized the city’s road projects, saying that poor planning caused “bottlenecks and delays that impair the necessary added capacity.”
The council of governments pointed to Oak Valley Parkway, which abruptly shrinks from four lanes to two because of freeway interchange improvements that were never constructed, and un-built plans for an I-10 bypass that would provide a detour during a major freeway crash.
Attorney Jeffrey Dunn, who is representing the council of governments in the appeal, said a hearing date has not been set. The trial judge ruled that Beaumont owed $42.9 million in transportation fees, retroactive interest of $14.8 million, and $8,246 per day until the money is paid or the case is overturned on appeal.
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