Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapX
I'm still trying to understand the funding. Not just mine, but for the entire proposal. The more I look at several published sources, the more I see they collectively they don't seem to add up.
It's been publicly stated that the fire budget will be the same no matter if the district is approved or not. The money comes from taxing residential properties plus commercial properties. Budget = Resident + Commercial
On The Villages Independent Fire Control and Rescue District it shows both taxes are going up. That math fails. Is the budget going way up? Is money being diverted to be spent elsewhere? Are other commercial properties going to get a huge reduction? Why are these types of questions not getting answered? |
Why are these questions not getting answered? Well, where were they asked? ToTV is not an official communications channel with the VPSD, VCCDD, or BoCC so it is no surprise that no official answer has been posted here. If the questions have been presented through appropriate channels then that *should* receive an official answer.
My guess: The "numbers people" came up with the chart and most of the officials at the Q&A sessions don't know the answer.
My current thinking: Either the 0.71mils used for the "Current Process" was completely made up or it is misleading. In any case, it isn't a number you can easily find on your tax bill and is not a true indication of how much the current service costs.
I used numbers from the FY 22-23 Proforma Budget Doc to find how much is currently being collected for fire services and how much is being sent to the VPSD.
From my calculations it seems that 1.65mils of our property taxes are used to fund the two fire services with about 0.67mils going to the VPSD. This is pretty close to the 0.71mils used for the "Current Process" column.
However, this is 0.67mils collected from everyone in the county. If the IFD is passed then the funding will only come from the 75% of the county that resides within the new district. To get to the same funding with only 75% of the properties something close to 0.89mils will need to be collected.
So to my mind, a better "Current Process" column would use 0.89mils and would show larger numbers. But since the table doesn't use that higher millage it makes it looks like everyone's taxes will increase in order to keep the budget number the same (which doesn't make sense).
This also suggests an answer to another question about the accuracy of the Assessment Rate Calculator. The "Simplified Method" collects 0.75mils but it looks like 0.89mils is needed to keep the IFD funding at the same level as the current VPSD funding. This might explain why the Calculator adds 0.1mils for the ad-valorem portion of the assessment.
NOTE: Since both the VPSD and the SCFD funding will be removed from the General Fund in 2024 we should look for our millage to be reduced from the 2024 rollback rate by about 1.65mils. The current projection for the 2024 budget does not seem to show this, even with another large increase in the tax base. Either fire service funding is coming from another source hiding in the revenue side or there is a tax increase planned. We need to watch for this and ask questions next year.