[kappy]

On Sunday, March 14th, and again today, the local paper enumerated all the reasons for not raising impact fees in Sumter County and there was another article on the 14th showing impact fees in all 67 Florida counties. The problem with all these articles is that they are inaccurate, misleading and they make very poor assumptions. 30 of the 67 counties have populations under 100,000. Due to The Villages adding 2500-3500 homes each year, you cannot compare Sumter County with any other county in Florida. Sumter County is unique.

In that same paper on the 14th, there was an article entitled, “ Villages Outpaced Most Metro Areas In Job Growth Even Amid the Pandemic”. And on Thursday March 18th, the front page read, “For the fifth consecutive year, Sumter County, because of The Villages, had the best credit debt rating of any county in Florida, according to SmartAsset, a financial services technology company.” So the local paper likes to paint a picture of gloom and doom, while they also say how well the county is doing. You can’t have it both ways.