[Goldwingnut]

Perhaps some should take it upon themselves to learn and understand how the government here in The Villages works and how and what the various budgets are used for. With over half a Billion dollars in assets to manage and maintain a large portion of the Amenity Fee we each pay monthly is required to just maintain these facilities. These cannot be simply turned off and left to sit idle, nor can they be ignored and left to their own devices. Only a small portion of the Amenity Fee you pay goes to buying playing cards and pickelballs. I tried to break this down in simple terms back in March when this idiotic idea first came about, thank you John_W for resharing that post.

As for those that want to armchair quarterback the budgeting process with your digital courage all you continue to do is show you lack of understanding and knowledge. My recommendation to you is get up out of your chair and join in the game, get involved with the budget process, ask questions, put the district staff and your supervisors on the spot and make them answer hard questions about how the money is spent and why we budget what we do. Florida law requires all government business be done in an open public forum (the Sunshine law). I've said word to this affect a dozen times over on this forum.

Sadly I must report that in the 6 years I've served as a district supervisor and on the PWAC I can count the number of residents who have attended budget meetings and workshops that I have sat, on one hand. The number of questions and comments from the public during these nearly 50 meetings is exactly 1. 1 question in 6 years! Only at 2 meetings has there ever been any significant public response, that was when it became necessary to abolish the deferral rate, the vast majority of those who spoke demonstrated a near complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the issue, but this in and of itself has been the topic of many treads so I'll let it go.

For those that actually want to understand how The Villages government works, start with attending the Resident Academy, then talk to your district supervisors, most have a pretty good idea of what and how things work. You can email or call me and we can meet and I'll take as much time as is needed to answer your questions and explain things.

VCDD Resident Academy