[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Millage rate may be at its lowest ever but you and I will be paying the same amount in property tax this year as we did last year. The rate is lower due to increased property values and additional homes, not because the BoCC lowered its spending.

The amount collected in property tax this year is projected to be $2M more than last year. At the same time, because of the new VPSDDD the county will spend $7M less than last year on fire protection. Decrease spending by $7M, increase income by $2M, and then advertise the rolled-back rate as a reduction even though you and I will be paying nearly the same amount. That does deserve some recognition.

The VPSDDD deserves recognition too for throwing around the 1.31mills reduction number when in reality the number was 0.32mills (which we aren't getting) but this is a topic for a different thread.

The one part of the discussion being missed is that, at the demand of the residents of Sumter County and The Villages, ambulance service was brought in house instead of being contracted out to AMR and with this action the number of ambulances serving the county went from 6-7 county wide to 18-19 combined from SCFEMS and VPSD. A higher level of service was demanded and now it must be paid for. So yes, there was a total tax bill increase for everyone in the county, who did you expect to pay for the increase in service, "someone else"?