Re:
Quote:
Originally Posted by neilbcox
You may not know but here are a few facts that will disgust you!
1. Sumter County Commissioners signed a 30 year contract in July 2018 with The Villages rich developers whereas we taxpayers will pay for roads and drainage infrastructure within land owned by the developers. The Villages gets to select the construction company, Rainey Construction, to design and build roads and drainage with ZERO competitor bids. The developers submit invoices for this design & construction cost plus 3% management fees to Sumter County. The owner of Rainey and the Morse Family are business partners in a large hunting lodge in Montana!
2. The Sumter County Commissioners also voted for a 25% tax increase so that us the taxpayers will eat the cost for The Villages developers!
3. In return of this 30 year contract The Villagers developers agree to build a 4th town center in Sumter County...no target date was set for this new town center so they have up to 30 years to build it.
4. The Sumter County Commissioners also agreed to pay for infrastructure roads and drainage for a new Developers business park to be located on I-75...this is your taxpayers money to assist the ultra rich developers!
5. Did you know that the Morse Family is the second richest family in Florida. The owner of Carnival Corporation is the richest.
6. The only way to stop this madness is to vote the current Sumter County Commissioners out in November who do not have your interest in mind!
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To get back to the beginning of this discussion, the argument around who should be paying for various infrastructure costs associated with development has been an on-going battle for as long as I can remember (I first moved to FL back in 1985) and I'm sure was going on way before that.
From my perspective, there are basically 3 choices; the developer (who will try and transfer this cost back to the new buyers), the new buyers, and the existing land owners/residents. The latter residents often resent the the fact that their taxes are inevitably increasing. Hence this whole thread.
Now, on the plus side, existing landowners/residents will find themselves enjoying enhanced economic prospects and will often "cash-out" to a windfall property value increases due to the development. (We are currently seeing that in the southern area as Warm Springs begins to be developed beyond the borders of the Villages of Southern Oaks and old-time property owners are able to sell at a profit.) I saw this play out in Palm Beach County 30 years ago and it continues down there even to this day.
I personally love what is going on down in my area (I'll refer to it generally as the VOSO) and with the CDD structure, I certainly feel like I am paying for my share of the infrastructure. This discussion is more about the non-villages infrastructure. (i.e. it is not tied directly to land that the developer is developing, but rather the areas surrounding it.) I can certainly sympathize with the sentiments of the original post and it's fair to talk about impact fees, but to think that this is a new phenomena is incorrect or to somehow tie it all back to The Morse family (The Developer) is missing the bigger context (imo).
The infrastructure costs are for things that we all are/will be benefiting from; new residents and old alike.
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