The commissioners are elected officials. They serve 4-year staggered terms. We elected them thinking we were making the right decision for our community. It seems that we did not make a good decision for those of us living in The Villages. We will have our chance to revisit our previous decision several times over the next few years. I will remind all who voted for the increase, who they are running against and that person's position on various methods of increasing our taxes. If you don't like it enough, then throw them out of office but make certain that the people we choose to replace them are capable of making sound decisions that are good for The Villages.
I went to the meeting last night and was turned away at 4:32 p.m. It's difficult to understand how the Commission could not understand the importance of this meeting to Villagers and made the necessary arrangements to either accommodate everyone at this meeting or announce prior to last night's meeting the time and place of additional meetings to address the concerns of the community. I believe the Commission behaved in an arbitrary manner and is operating in an absolute vacuum. There were reasons this Commission did not increase our taxes for 13 years and those reasons did not include caring about the welfare of fixed income retirees living in the Villages. Assessed property values decreased between 2008-2013 and without an increase in our millage rate, tax revenue from existing residents declined. They have not addressed new construction tax revenue other than to say that as The Villages approach a population of 150,000 it becomes more expensive to operate. I think many people have a difficult time with that statement, but it was made.
Our assessed values should be addressed on a regularly scheduled basis. Millage rates should be addressed as well but not to offset lost tax revenue in a declining real estate market. A 25% increase in the millage rate is absurd. How long do you think it will be before the Commission comes back with their plan to increase the property assessments?
Their increase in salary and benefits simply makes them look like what they are. These folks are going to get approximately 50% of their salary in retirement benefits...did you ever get that? Probably not, and they shouldn't either.
That's all for now but I promise this isn't going to get any prettier any time soon.
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