Benefit
There are variations between state governments as to what constitutes a “benefit” under special assessment laws.
In general, the "benefit" must result directly, uniquely and specifically from the public project. For example, when water and sewer lines are installed by government units, nearby land often increases in value. Both the presence of safe drinking water and of sewer lines means that expensive wells and septic systems do not have to be installed by affected property owners. It also means the potential for contamination of ground water and surface areas from improperly treated sewage will be eliminated. Land that might have been “unbuildable” before may become "buildable" once government provided water and sewer services become available. Providing water and sewer service are situations which may adapt formerly unusable land for residential or commercial use. A storm sewer or a dam or dike may mitigate flooding and therefore the sewer, dike or dam relieves a burden, flooding.
The term benefit most frequently means an increase in the market value of the benefited property. However, some states historically have defined the term benefit to mean more than an increase in market value. For example, benefit may mean a special adaptability of the land or a relief from some burden.
Read more about this topic: Special Assessment Tax
Famous quotes containing the word benefit:
“The service a man renders his friend is trivial and selfish, compared with the service he knows his friend stood in readiness to yield him, alike before he had begun to serve his friend, and now also. Compared with that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit it is in my power to render him seems small.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Only one thing is certain: if pot is legalized, it won’t be for our benefit but for the authorities’. To have it legalized will also be to lose control of it.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“Your children get a lot of good stuff out of your work...They benefit from the tales you tell over dinner. They learn from the things you explain to them about what you do. They brag about you at school. They learn that work is interesting, that it has dignity, that it is necessary and pleasing, and that it is a perfectly natural thing for both mothers and fathers to do...Your work enriches your children more than it deprives them.”
—Louise Lague (20th century)