[manaboutown]

Another part of the artle in the Sentinel:


"The district sold $426 million in tax-free bonds from November 1993 through June 2004, including $364 million worth of bonds that were under scrutiny in the five-year IRS probe. The district used the borrowed money to purchase boccie-ball courts, golf courses, swimming pools and other recreational facilities from Morse, whose fortune is estimated by Bloomberg News at $2.9 billion."

So, if I understand this correctly, the central districts, controlled by Morse, paid Morse $364,000,000 for these facilities. Who determined the prices to be paid, a disinterested third party appraiser or one controlled by Morse? How were the prices determined? They most assuredly were not based solely on cost to build or current structural value. If an income appraisal approach was used the income would be from amenity fees paid by Villagers. So Villagers pay the amenity fees which are then used to vastly increase the "value" of physical structures based on their "income" from the assessed fees. Then, based upon the fees paid by Villagers the physical lands and structures thereon are sold at very high prices, possibly at multiples of actual cost to build, from Morse to the central districts controlled by Morse which contain no residents, only commercial properties owned by Morse. Wow!