Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeod
Couple of questions regarding private vs. public.
If a municipality uses federal tax-free bonds to construct something, how does that make it public? Let's say Lady Lake issues bonds to build a pool. Can they not prohibit non-residents from using it? Or say they build a nature trail. Can't they restrict access? I don't see that using federal tax exempt bonds automatically forces an entity to open access to everyone.
Also, a distinction needs to be made regarding cart paths. Those that are completely separate from roadways are maintained with amenity funds. If they are public, why are they not maintained by the tax dollars we pay in addition to our amenity fee? I don't recall a credit on my tax bill for that portion of the amenity fee that goes toward maintenance of those paths. Now, the paths/diamond lanes that are on the surface streets are maintained by the county and funded by tax dollars (property and/or gas taxes). That also applies to roads within the community that have no designated cart lane, but are used by carts as well as autos.
Frankly, I agree with others who believe that this whole situation is not the result of safety/liability concerns with outside carts entering TV. Rather it is a developer who has tired of outside businesses advertising cart access to TV which undermines his ability to sell/lease land for similar enterprises within TV. I don't know what Freedom Pointe or the facility on 466A paid for their property to get cart access within TV, but I think it is safe to assume it was more than the new one on 441 paid.
I truly hope the result of all this is the path remains open and access is unaltered from before the wall. I fear that if access to TV is restricted, it won't be long before Harbor Chase decides maintaining the path is not worth it without access to TV.
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Here's your answer to paragraph one: The fact that they can issue Tax Free Bonds. You must be a municipality to issue such bonds or a Public School District, or a County. The Villages is considered a Special Municipality under Florida Law. They are bound by many of the same regulations as any other city. The IRS in their last ruling to the Villages indicated they believe that the Villages because of the way some things were manipulated violated the rules which define the Villages as a political Municipality, therefore they had no authority to issue Tax Free Bonds. Sorry I got a bit off topic. Have a nice day.