Quote:
Originally Posted by PennBF
Can anyone help me understand how the housing has grown so significantly in The Villages while the taxes have gone up a little or stayed flat? Where the heck is all of the additional taxes going and why are the other fee's going up??? Why no reductions?? Can anyone help me to understand this thing??  |
This has been explained in a number of other threads, but here is a synopsis:
The Villages is massively expanding. This massive expansion of The Villages is going to earn the Developer over a billion dollars. However, the massive expansion of The Villages is necessitating a massive expansion of county roads and other county infrastructure. There are two possible sources of funding to pay for this county infrastructure expansion:
(a) The Developer, who could pay for it with a reasonable impact fee. An impact fee is a per-house tax charged when a building permit is issued and which is supposed to pay for infrastructure necessitated by the house. The Developer's impact fee is currently set at a “sweetheart rate”. OR
(b) The Sumter County taxpayers through a huge increase in our property taxes.
The current County Commissioners have all been put in office with the backing of the Developer. Not surprisingly, the County Commissioners unanimously voted for alternative (b). Also, not surprisingly, those county commissioners who are now up for re-election are having a great deal of trouble getting enough signatures to even get on the ballot.