[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Normal

It may be time to break up fire protection services and remove it from the county plate. The only thing that complicates this is the unincorporated section which would have to rely on county centered services. If you pay Wildwood, Fruitland Park, or Leesburg taxes, you are covered. The shortfall would have to be made up by unincorporated tax payers for their own service.

The issue is ugly, but sooner or later it needs fixed. The overlapped 124 dollar a year tax is an outgrown bandage.

Just having the county control it all is well outdated and impractical. The NEW Villages Dependent District formulated by the county would be a game changer for legal actions and logistical grounds to get back our community to be run by its citizens.

Where have you been for the last 2 years on this topic? Sumter County Board of County Commissioners 2 weeks ago took the final actions to create the Villages Public Safety Dependent District culminating and closing the book on the Fire Department issues in Sumter County and The Villages.

Beginning on 1 October 2024 the Sumter County and VPSD will be funded independent of each other allowing the two departments to provide the services uniquely needed for their service areas. The separate funding models allow the different levels of service without the inherent conflicts that arise from the use of a single funding model.

VPSD operates within a defined boundary within Sumter County that includes all of the Sumter County sections of The Villages (developed and undeveloped) as well as several enclaves within those boundaries where logic dictated that these non-Villages areas are better and more logically served by VPSD instead of SCFEMS. Additionally, VPSD has operating agreements (including compensation) with Marion County, Lake County, Fruitland Park, Lady Lake, and now (I believe) Leesburg to provide fire and EMS services to the non-Sumter Count portions of The Villages.

With the exception of a few rural properties who pay no county property taxes due to the low land values and applied exemptions, nobody in Sumter County pays $125/year for fire services. This is a myth and false political talking point used by the POA and V-N website to further their misguided agendas of sowing hate and discontent against the business communities of Sumter County and of course the developer of The Villages.

The $125 generates less than 25% of the revenue needed to fund the operations of the two fire departments in Sumter County. The remaining funding comes from the General Fund of the Sumter County budget. This represents about 30% of the General Fund expenditures annually. This translates to each developed property paying $125 plus 30% of their annual county property tax for fire and EMS services. For me personally, that translates to about $875 for this year. For a business it's the same. During the budget issues over the last few months claims were made that the 6 properties than comprise the commercial sections of Brownwood only paid $750/year combined for fire services, this is not only false, its was known by the entities making this claim that it was false (yes that means that they were lying about this). The Brownwood properties with their 30% property tax contribution pay $750 plus approximately $200,000 per year for fire services. The Lofts properties also pay a similar amount. It is the same for all businesses in Sumter County.

For those not familiar with how a business runs its finances here's a fact for you. Businesses don't pay taxes. They collect taxes and pass them on to the government assessing the taxes. Taxes to a business are treated the same as labor, material, energy, and every other cost that is incurred to operate their business, make their product, and/or provide their service. These are all added together and then marked up for the final price their customer will pay. The taxes don't come out of the profits, they are paid before profits are determined.

Wildwood doesn't have a fire department, they a covered by either SCFEMS or VPSD depending on the location, their budget (taxes paid to them by city residents) does not cover fire serices. I can't speak to the Fruitland Park and Leesburg fire services because I haven't taken the time to look into them, I've been more than busy with the fire services for Sumter County, The Villages, and the 5 municipalities that make up Sumter County for the last year and a half.

Quality fire services in The Villages and Sumter County are not an issue, and thankfully or at least for the time being, no longer is their funding.