[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

What I still do not understand is why businesses located in the Villages cannot pay for this service based on the size of their building?

Sun went on and on how big a percentage increase it would be but never said anything about dollar amounts.

Seems like commissioners backed off on an increase to business.

Hoping Don will answer this.

Stu,
I'm not going to pass the buck on this one, that's not my way, I will take responsibility for my actions, inactions, and errors, victories however always go the whole.

Hindsight is 20/20 they say and what I see in hindsight is a failure on my part. This resolution, in my opinion, should have never come to a public vote in the form that it did. Why did it? Because I failed the residents and businesses of Sumter County when the BOCC was discussing this in July. During the workshop I asked the question of how other counties are doing the assessments and got the response that they were doing it in a similar manner. Where I failed was not to ask how our proposed rates would compare to these others and not to ask for real numbers and how these new fees were going to impact on the hundreds of businesses throughout the county. Had I asked these questions perhaps things would have been different, perhaps a different tact may have been taken, perhaps the outcome of the 8/22 meeting would have been different. Again, hindsight is 20/20.

The notion put out by many that a business pays the same as a homeowner is false, and intentionally misleading by some who know better. Those that espouse this notion I would advise caution on what their agenda may be. Yes, we all pay $124/year for the MSBU but that only covers a small portion of the true cost, the rest comes from the county ad valorem tax (based on the value of the property) that varies by property.

I'm unhappy with the vote and I'm unhappy with the fact that we painted ourselves into a corner on this issue. Unfortunately, because of the way the budgeting process works in government, the fire departments have taken the brunt of the impact. We, however, as a community will all feel the pain of the decisions that had to be made.

There are several options being surfaced about how to deal with is in the upcoming year and exploring and analyzing these will be the #1 priority of this board member. There is, however, only one option that will prevent a substantial tax increase - cutback on services. There is no "someone else" that is going to be paying the bill.

There are some digital warriors that make claims of mismanagement or worse on the part of the county, these claims are false and are made from a position of ignorance or deception. The budget has hundreds of moving parts regulated by just as many local, state, and federal laws and requirements; it is the job of the county staff and the BOCC to navigate and comply with all of these requirements while trying to provide the needed and wanted services of the community. These armchair quarterbacks should stick to second guessing the Sunday football games instead of trying to second guess the budget and the things they know little about.

We have a long year ahead of us. Communications from the County to the community and from the community to the County will be essential in resolving the budget and services changes that must happen.

What is included below is the response I sent to the Sumter Sun Times when I was asked why I voted as I did. The full article and responses by all BOCC members is available at the link below.

Commissioners share reasoning on fire fee votes | Sumter Sun Times | midfloridanewspapers.com

The recent vote on the changes in the fire assessment for Sumter County by the Board of County Commissioners was, in my opinion, a failure by the Board for the residents and businesses of Sumter County. I am speaking for myself and not for the other Commissioners. I failed to adequately communicate the need for the changes, I failed to adequately explain what these changes were, and I failed to ensure that everyone understood what the real costs are to operate our combined Fire Departments.

Let me take the last failure first, what is the true costs to residents and businesses for our combined fire services here in Sumter County? Most believe that the $124 Fire Assessment on their annual property tax bill is all they pay, for most of the count taxpayers this is incorrect. This Fire Assessment only covers about 25% of the total operating cost of the fire departments, the rest comes from the general fund whose main funding is the annual ad valorem tax on individual properties. On your annual property tax bill this is the first line item and the one we are always talking about when we discuss property tax rates or millage rate cuts. Our Fire Departments and Sherriff’s Office are the two biggest items this money goes to. The Fire Departments represent about 25-30% of this budget. In my tax bill for 2022 that ad valorem tax is $1240, so $310 of it PLUS the $124 Fire Assessment went to fund our Fire Departments, or about $434 last year. Each resident and business can do the same calculations to find out what they are really paying for fire services.

There are some properties within Sumter County that only paid $124 last year, these were mostly smaller properties with low taxable values that exemptions such as homestead reduce their taxable value to $0 and these properties pay no ad valorem tax. To assume that $124 is all any resident or business is paying, however, is grossly incorrect. I failed to explain this to our residents and businesses.

Why the big change and where did the money go? Quite simply, ambulance services. Two and a half years ago the cry came out from across the county about poor ambulance service and the time it was taking to get transported. The BOCC listened, formed a committee to investigate and make recommendations, and residents came forward from all across the county, me included, expressing their opinions and desires on this critical topic. The predominant opinion was that the Fire Departments should bring transport services in house and provide them and not use a for profit company as was the current operations. Once again, the BOCC listened, sided with the residents and efforts started to provide these services starting October 1st, 2022. The BOCC also warned residents at the time that this was going to have a cost. Those costs became a reality in August when TRIM notices went out. I failed to explain this to our residents and businesses.

Once the TRIM notices started hitting the mailboxes, email and phones went afire for the Commissioners about the cost increases. My initial reaction was that people thought “someone else” would pay for this cost increase, the truth is that that “someone else” faces us each morning in the mirror, there is no “someone else”. We as the residents asked for better ambulance services and we as the residents must pay for it. In the grand scheme of things, for most (but not all) residents, the $200 increase itself wasn’t a huge impact. There was and still is a misconception that this is a 160% increase, but as I explained above, for me this was to be less than a 50% increase.

The worst impact of the new Fire Assessment, however, was on our business community. Many businesses were seeing $5,000, $10,000, $100,000, or more in addition to Fire Assessments. This was to hit not just the bigger business but also every mom-and-pop store and shop in the county. Most may not realize it but there are not the same tax protections on commercial property as there are on residential property, no homestead exemptions, and others to help shelter their values. Businesses are already paying a higher tax burden than residential property owners, and remember, 25% of that was already going to fund the Fire Departments. These tax increases were unsustainable.

Tax increases on business always result in higher costs to the consumers and/or lower profits. Any cost a business experiences – material, labor, energy, taxes, etc., always gets passed to the consumer. While most costs affect a business no matter its location, taxes are very local and can have a positive or negative impact on a business community, in this case all of Sumter County. These higher costs would have driven prices higher and customers away from our Sumter County businesses, and with it a great many jobs. This would have been an economic disaster for Sumter County, for residents and businesses alike.

Two years ago, efforts to raise one time impact fees sent ripples through our local economy. This annual fire assessment increase would have been a tsunami that would have drowned our economy and taken years to recover from, if ever.

As a County Commissioner I represent all of Sumter County, Villages residents, County residents, and businesses alike, and it takes all of us together to make Sumter County the great community it is, but it only takes 5 people, the BOCC, to devastate that community for all of us. I could not do that to our home. I made the motion and voted to not enact this Fire Assessment because the impact on Sumter County was too great. I believe that this was the correct decision for ALL of Sumter County. I also believe that this was a failure, that I, as a board member, failed to ask the question of what the real impact would be on our businesses and how that would impact on our economy. I failed to fully assess the impact on all of Sumter County. Fortunately, the residents and businesses reached out and opened my eyes to the full implications of this in time to stop this. For your feedback I thank you, and for my failure I offer to each resident and business of Sumter County my apologies and my assurance that it won’t happen again.

So where do we go from here? The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity trying to make the necessary budget and services cuts to support the board’s actions for next year. The County staff has done a remarkable job and the proposed concessions by the Firefighter’s Union that represents SCFEMS cannot go without mention. The next year will be a time of austerity for Sumter County as we try to plan for the next year and figure out how to pay for and provide the needed services for all of Sumter County. There are many ideas on the table that will be considered, some better than others. One thing is certain in my mind, the pendulum from 2 years ago swung too far the other way and we must now somehow find a way to center it and provide that balance of better service at an acceptable cost. It will be a difficult challenge but one I am sure we will be victorious over as failure again is not acceptable.