Quote:
Originally Posted by katezbox
The "rag of a newspaper" has sensationalized this to sell more papers at the newsstands. The Sun (while far from objective) - has no need to over report the story. Keeping in mind that all newspapers are the mouthpiece of someone and have their own slant - I find it hard pressed that the following statements from the most recent (and IMHO the least biased) article by L. Ritchie, are in fact, sensationalized...
"in fact, virtually everything but the 38,000 houses in "America's Friendliest Hometown" -- have been financed by various tax-free bonds.
If a deal isn't reached, the IRS has threatened to look into eight similar loans obtained through bond sales. That could expose the governments to millions more in tax liability.
"If I was a resident of The Villages, I would be outraged by the transaction," IRS Agent Dominick Servadio Jr. wrote in a letter to the Village Center.
Villages residents are watching the investigation unfold, mostly with bewilderment. The sale prices were set by two appraisers using a complicated method that the IRS contends was incorrectly calculated.
"It (is) obvious that the residents' amenity fees could be much lower, or there would be a lot more of the fees available for maintenance of the facilities if these were arm's length transactions"
I absolutely do not dispute the need to be informed - so Villagers and prospective Villagers don't appear to be as "bewildered" (i.e. dotty old geezers driving erratically around in their golf carts ) - but speculation will get us nowhere in a hurry.
k
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Reply to Katezbox:
I also wish the the initial Lauren Ritchie articles had been less sensationalized and contained fewer factual errors-- errors which she never has acknowledged. However, if you read the IRS documents, you will see that, unfortunately, each of the excerpts that you cite in your post as being "sensationalized" are, indeed, factually correct. It is really too bad that the Developer-owned Daily Sun suppressed this major story rather than reporting it in a balanced matter. If you want to attack any newspaper regarding this story, I would suggest it be the Sun, not the Sentinel.
In terms of the attacks by yourself and others on the "speculation" in this thread, I haven't seen speculation in the posts here. I have only seen an attempt by concerned residents to understand the implications for Villagers (and what action they should take) if the rosy outlook painted by Janet Tutt and some posters to this tread turns out to be wrong.