Quote:
Originally Posted by graciegirl
I have been reading this forum for a long time. I find it interesting that the "thank you's" for statements are going along pretty predictably. In fact on the first post by the OP there were two "thank you's" from folks who had never ever ever posted before.
I like to know if there is more than what is said and attitudes deeper than an issue when I read a debate like this and the people who stand for and against are to me the telling factor.
My opinion is that there is a movement to unseat people who are connected to the developer. There are those, like realtors that cannot sell new homes and they have a beef, and I see at least one who has chimed in.
I always wonder what is the agenda behind all of the debate and I step back, four, five, six, forty, a thousand paces and look at this place. I am always astonished at how well it is run, and that is has just minor flukes. It is clean, it is well maintained and it offers a myriad of things for a decent price. It is hugely successful for good reason. Folks are flocking here, and that irritates many, but it is a sign of success. Many people are irritated by those who make big bucks. Many people want to run things themselves.
I say. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. You might just throw out the baby with the bath water and usher in some folks who are really gonna make you mad.
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It is “broke”.
Many of us are aware that it is badly broken, and we are trying to fix it, and whether or not The Villages has nice life style is completely irrelevant. We live in a community, not in a resort hotel, and we should be insisting on good government in our community.
The point under discussion is that the five "people connected with the Developer" (your words) on the Sumter County Commission have picked our pockets, and given to the Developer, $186 million (Orlando Sentinel figure). The County Commissioners have done this by massively increasing our taxes to pay for infrastructure that should be paid for by the Developer via increasing his sweetheart impact fee. That impact fee has been $901/house versus $2,600 for other Sumter County builders versus about $20,000 for a Collier County builder in a retirement community.
Every time you pay your county tax bill, you are, in reality, writing the Developer a check for the amount of your increased tax, and every year that check is going to get bigger and bigger as your assessed value increases. You, apparently, are okay with this. Are you are also okay with the County Commissioners refusing to oppose draining our aquifer for commercial bottling-- thereby increasing our risk of both a water shortage and even more sinkholes?
If you are okay with that sort of stuff, fine; keep voting for the incumbent Commissioners. Many of us are not okay with with that kind of abuse of Sumter residents by the County Commissioners. For that reason, we are marking our calendars to vote out Developer-puppets Butler, Burgess, and Printz in the August 18 Republican primary.