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Originally Posted by Bill14564

There is no redundancy. There is a Wildwood PD that services city of Wildwood, a County Sheriff that services the county outside the city, and a mutual aid agreement in case it is needed. If the Wildwood PD went away then the Sumter County Sheriff would need to staff up to cover the gap.

As far as property taxes go, there is no "this" to get on the ballot yet. There is a pitch by the Governor that few in the legislature are going to disagree with but it is only a pitch with no details behind it. When a real proposal is made that can be analyzed for its impact on services, then we'll see how many get behind it.

If you go fishing with offers of free stuff you'll get a lot of bites, even when the end result is bad.

But there is taxation redundancy for people who live in areas where the Sheriff’s Department isn’t needed or required. If I pay for police support already in Wildwood, Leesburg or Lady Lake, I don’t need the Sheriffs Department. I already have a city police department. Perhaps a skeleton sized crew for state warrants or corrections is needed, but there is no need to pay for two police departments like municipal residents already do. I guess the unincorporated portions benefit, but Wildwood residents get nothing from the increased spending.

The insult to injury was paying for yet more protection (15 additional positions) in the Sheriff’s Department while we carry much more in taxes paying for our increased police budget here in Wildwood.