Quote:
Originally Posted by dewilson58
Appears the $100mil is over stated.
What is the support for this claim??
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A fair question.
I was trying to keep the original post relatively short. If anything, the $100,000,000 figure that I cited is understated, but I used it because it is easily verifiable. As reported in several sources, including the October POA Bulletin (see page 2) and in the on-line news website, the road improvements necessitated by the Developer's massive expansion of The Villages will cost $100,000,000. Those roads should be paid for by an increase in the Developer's $901 impact fee, but they are not, thanks to the County Commissioners. Instead, those roads are being paid for with our 25% tax hike.
Note, also that Sumter County only collects impact fees from the Developer for roads. Collier County, where the Commissioners were not handpicked by the Developer, also requires the builder of a house in a retirement community to pay impact fees with respect to the need for expansion of the following infrastructure, in addition to roads: Community Parks, Regional Parks, EMS, Schools, Government Buildings, Libraries, Law Enforcement, Jail, Sewer, and Fire-- all totaling about $20,000. All this data is available on the Collier County website. Why doesn't Sumter County collect impact fees from the Developer for any of these other items? I don't know and could only guess.
Now some simple math with really big numbers: The Developer reportedly is going to build 60,000 new houses. The Developer pays an impact fee that is $1,699 less than the builder of a single-family house outside The Villages in Sumter County. If the County Commissioners had just increased the Developer's impact fee to the non-Villages rate, it would generate the following extra revenue: 60,000 x $1,699 = $101,940,000. Eureka, the new roads are paid for without a property-tax increase.
Alternatively, if the Sumter County Commission calculated impact fees like Collier County does, that would generate the following extra revenue: 60,000 x ($20,000-$901) = $1,145,940,000. Eureka, nobody would have to pay any property-tax at all for the next few years.