[Reg]

1. In attending the Meeting at Colony Cottage last month Mr.Arnold
presented the reasons for the tax increase in a well thought-out
manor. I commend him for his presentation.

I have a problem in the question and answer section. Mr. Arnold is
an employee of the County and not an elected official. The elected
Officials of the county who make the final resolution should be on
the front lines to answer questions. The Commissioners are voted
into office by the citizens and should be held accountable.

The question and answer session was set up where Mr. Arnold
stated he would answer any concerns after all citizens made their
comments. From my perspective, he answered only the comments
he wanted to and left things open. Those who wanted clarification
were not allowed to follow up.

2. The Commissioners pay increase is designated by the state, but it
was not said that the State sets their pay schedule by the
population of the county. The larger The County grows the higher
the salaries. Who pays for it ..... the citizens.

3. This year my assessed value of my home went up on top of the
increase of the millage rate (my increase is 28%). My wife and I
receive Social Security and have no pension so the increase comes
out of savings. The local eating establishments and other local
businesses will take the hit because of this.

4. If the Commissioners knew of the expansion of The Villages in
2016, they must have known there would be increased costs over
additional revenue being brought in. Why did we have the
rollbacks in the millage rate? This brings me to one of the reasons
we purchased a house in The Villages 6 years ago. We were told
by our salesperson that because of the growth in The Villages, the
tax millage had been going down and once the building stops our
house value would greatly escalate since they only own property
to the Brownwood area.

5. Are the commissioners making the best business decisions for the
citizens? If we did not have the rollbacks in millage this tax hike
would not be so drastic.

Another way could be to increase the taxes in the areas where the
growth and additional costs are occurring. They could have sold
bonds the past 3 years based on the increased revenue being
projected.

6. I believe the commissioners have mismanaged the county and are
not making the existing citizens a priority. They are making
decisions that could benefit themselves.

7. In all of this, I put no blame on the developer. I believe they are
great business people and do whatever they can to continue what
they have built and trying to evolve to greater things.