Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill14564
Most (all?) of the Villages in Sumter County north of 44 are not in any incorporated area and only pay Sumter County tax.
The City of Wildwood incorporated a lot of the area south of 44 so those Villagers pay Wildwood tax. Areas in Lake and Marion counties might have city taxes too (it sounds like Pine Hills does).
There was another thread a year or so ago asking what benefit Villagers received for paying Wildwood taxes. It didn't apply to me so I don't recall if there was ever a good answer.
To me, it feels like Wildwood (and Leesburg) saw the writing on the wall and took steps to incorporate the areas before the Villages built on them. It is not inconceivable that there was an agreement between the Villages and the cities to facilitate the incorporation in return for favorable zoning decisions but I have nothing to back that up.
Should unincorporated Villages be grabbed up by the city of Wildwood to fatten their tax purses? Absolutely not! The Villages are a boon to Wildwood without additional taxation. Wildwood provides little (nothing?) to the Villages yet receives business income from them. If there are Wildwood services that I could receive if I paid additional taxes I don't know what they are and I'm certainly not missing them.
Unincorporated surcharge to the county? That would be called a tax increase; the last substantial increase was added in 2018. There are three ex-commissioners who can attribute their defeat at least partially to that surcharge.
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Apart from driving on 301, what do I get out of Wildwood? I eat at Casa Agave. I use the Post Office several times a year. I use the dry cleaner a couple times a year. I bought a set of tires in Wildwood. That’s it. But. Wildwood is growing fast, trying to dilute its crime rate by building lots of new houses and apartment complexes. I think Wildwood picks up a lot of money from the Trailwinds Village / Pinellas Plaza developments. This leaves the city cash flush, so it’s being spent on a city park and multistory parking garage that few Villagers will use. But the new construction means they also need to put in a much larger sewage plant, which is expensive. I think the mayor and city council are making a lot of smart decisions to improve the city, but I don’t think Villagers who are in Wildwood will be getting value for money. I wonder if that annexation of what is now Villages houses into Wildwood was a deal that had to be made by the developer to get permission to build houses on what had been empty pasture land.