View Full Version : Maintenance Assessment Increases - live discussion 3:00 PM Sunday
Goldwingnut
08-11-2024, 12:17 PM
There has been a lot of online activity about increases that are coming to the maintenance assessments, in particular the CDD14 increase of 56%.
I’ve spoken to district staff on this issue today and have a good understanding of the changes and why things have increased. I could spend another hour typing out an explanation, but it will be easier to go over it verbally. Please join me on my YouTube broadcast today at 3:00 PM and I’ll put out the information.
Gold Wingnut Live #27 8/11/2024 at 3:00 PM - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/live/6Rs8CxAwiKA?si=3GUFAWTWJRuc7KtX)
Don
Altavia
08-11-2024, 12:56 PM
Thanks as always Don!
CarlR33
08-11-2024, 01:05 PM
Will this be recorded for later viewing? Thanks!!
Cranky
08-11-2024, 01:51 PM
Should talk about the 31% increase for Middleton. That maintenance fee increase brings our Middleton home to $2800 for the year. I wish we were paying less than a $1000 like most of the villages.
rustyp
08-11-2024, 02:39 PM
Don is on airways at present explaining the increase. Credit due to him on a reasonable explanation plus in layman's terms. Pay attention to the how will district 14 maintenance fees compare to the other CDDs in the future when the dust settles. OUTLOOK - higher! District 14 is long and skinny compared to most well rounded CDD's.
frayedends
08-11-2024, 02:50 PM
Will this be recorded for later viewing? Thanks!!
Don’s live videos stay available on his YouTube channel.
Papa_lecki
08-12-2024, 05:24 AM
I just watched this, it VERY simply explains what the CDDs are and hope they relate to the WACs (PWAC/EMAC/etc).
It is very helpful
xcaligirl
08-12-2024, 06:18 AM
There has been a lot of online activity about increases that are coming to the maintenance assessments, in particular the CDD14 increase of 56%.
I’ve spoken to district staff on this issue today and have a good understanding of the changes and why things have increased. I could spend another hour typing out an explanation, but it will be easier to go over it verbally. Please join me on my YouTube broadcast today at 3:00 PM and I’ll put out the information.
Gold Wingnut Live #27 8/11/2024 at 3:00 PM - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/live/6Rs8CxAwiKA?si=3GUFAWTWJRuc7KtX)
Don
Our assessment fee has gone up about $20 over the past 10 years, I believe inflation has gone up more than that! Sorry I missed this YouTube explanation yesterday.
mmfmichele
08-12-2024, 06:49 AM
Question - who decides the fees? Are they elected officials?
golfing eagles
08-12-2024, 06:53 AM
Question - who decides the fees? Are they elected officials?
Question - does anyone think "elected officials" are far superior in conserving tax dollars???
xcaligirl
08-12-2024, 07:24 AM
There has been a lot of online activity about increases that are coming to the maintenance assessments, in particular the CDD14 increase of 56%.
I’ve spoken to district staff on this issue today and have a good understanding of the changes and why things have increased. I could spend another hour typing out an explanation, but it will be easier to go over it verbally. Please join me on my YouTube broadcast today at 3:00 PM and I’ll put out the information.
Gold Wingnut Live #27 8/11/2024 at 3:00 PM - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/live/6Rs8CxAwiKA?si=3GUFAWTWJRuc7KtX)
Don
I am able to access this video on YouTube this morning. Thanks for posting it. HUGE increase! I don't think I'd be too happy 'after the fact'. Be nice to see what others think and for me to finish listening to the entire video!
Goldwingnut
08-12-2024, 08:55 AM
Will this be recorded for later viewing? Thanks!!
Yes, just use the same link.
Goldwingnut
08-12-2024, 09:00 AM
Question - who decides the fees? Are they elected officials?
Question - does anyone think "elected officials" are far superior in conserving tax dollars???
These elected officials are your friends and neighbors not like some distant congressman or senator, everything they do affects them exactly as it affects you.
The fees are based on the cost of services being provided, there's no fat or extras in the CDD budgets, it's simply about what it costs.
Burgy
08-12-2024, 09:56 AM
Should talk about the 31% increase for Middleton. That maintenance fee increase brings our Middleton home to $2800 for the year. I wish we were paying less than a $1000 like most of the villages.
few
if any are less than $150 per month, that is $1800 per year:
Bill14564
08-12-2024, 10:09 AM
Should talk about the 31% increase for Middleton. That maintenance fee increase brings our Middleton home to $2800 for the year. I wish we were paying less than a $1000 like most of the villages.
few
if any are less than $150 per month, that is $1800 per year:
Need to compare apples with apples.
Villagers pay a monthly amenity fee (mine is about $180) plus an annual maintenance fee (mine is about $600). Combined, I pay about $2,760 per year.
Does Middleton pay a monthly amenity fee along with the $2,800 annual fee or do they pay only the one?
Ignatz
08-13-2024, 06:03 AM
Great show, Don! We watched yesterday on You Tube. Your talk answered my questions and even some I didn't know that I had! LOL
Appreciate your taking the time to put this together and share with the masses.
BTW, what's going on over at 470 & Meggison? LOL!!!! (Can't wait till they finally share the big secret with us.)
clouwho
08-13-2024, 07:10 AM
Could you explain your $2800? What is included? Thanks
If you are referencing taxes and maintenance (and now the stupid fire assessment), NO ONE I know is paying $1000.
Should talk about the 31% increase for Middleton. That maintenance fee increase brings our Middleton home to $2800 for the year. I wish we were paying less than a $1000 like most of the villages.
golfing eagles
08-13-2024, 07:18 AM
Could you explain your $2800? What is included? Thanks
If you are referencing taxes and maintenance (and now the stupid fire assessment), NO ONE I know is paying $1000.
Didn't realize fire protection was "stupid".
And if you are referring to the new way fire protection is assessed, remember the independent fire district was voted down, mostly due to the uninformed fear mongering and anti-developer stance of the POA, so now the county is in control, not TV. So while technically your cost of fire protection should remain the same, it is now up to the county to set the budget and you will pay what they decide.
Goldwingnut
08-13-2024, 08:23 AM
Didn't realize fire protection was "stupid".
And if you are referring to the new way fire protection is assessed, remember the independent fire district was voted down, mostly due to the uninformed fear mongering and anti-developer stance of the POA, so now the county is in control, not TV. So while technically your cost of fire protection should remain the same, it is now up to the county to set the budget and you will pay what they decide.
The VPSDDD board sets the rates in the VPSD district which includes the Sumter County portion of The Villages and Middleton. It is submitted to the BOCC for final approval. The BOCC does not get involved with the setting of their budget or policies - unless they get crazy stupid in which case they can reject it and tell them to do it again.
frayedends
08-13-2024, 09:29 AM
I probably missed it in the video, but the line items shows EMAC fee and that is what went up the most. What I missed is what that fee actually is spent on. Landscape maintenance is a separate line item.
Northwoods
08-13-2024, 09:37 AM
Middleton does not have a monthly amenity fee.
Bill14564
08-13-2024, 09:39 AM
I probably missed it in the video, but the line items shows EMAC fee and that is what went up the most. What I missed is what that fee actually is spent on. Landscape maintenance is a separate line item.
Go to the EMAC budget and see where the money is spent. The largest increase in that budget was Landscape Maintenance.
There is landscape specific to the CDD that is contracted and paid for directly by the CDD - that is the "separate line item" you are seeing. There is also landscape within the CDD area that is covered and maintained with EMAC funds - a large portion of the EMAC fee goes towards that work.
CDD14 Landscape maintained by EMAC, per Exhibit A of the EMAC agreement, is Chandler Drive south of the unmanned gates.
Landscaping maintained by CDD14 would be most (all?) of the other roadways within the CDD.
See Exhibit A for more details.
Goldwingnut
08-13-2024, 09:44 AM
I probably missed it in the video, but the line items shows EMAC fee and that is what went up the most. What I missed is what that fee actually is spent on. Landscape maintenance is a separate line item.
Most of the landscaping is handled by EMAC in the form of larger area contracts with the other cdds (15 in this case), also this includes maintenance of the retention ponds and pumping equipment, again also multi-cdd contracts.
Only a small portion of the landscaping and maintenance contracts are kept CDD specific.
EMAC and PWAC both rely on the large contracts/volume purchasing to save the member districts money. Think of it as bulk buying at Sams or Costco.
EMAC and PWAC also incorporate risk sharing - a major cost incident would be shared by all member districts regardless of which district it occurs. This becomes more and more beneficial as EMAC grows.
frayedends
08-13-2024, 10:25 AM
Got it. Makes sense. Thanks to both last 2 posts explaining.
DebMil
08-16-2024, 03:55 PM
I am able to access this video on YouTube this morning. Thanks for posting it. HUGE increase! I don't think I'd be too happy 'after the fact'. Be nice to see what others think and for me to finish listening to the entire video!
Does everyone realize this is the smaller once per year fee on your taxes? Not the CDD fee?
Bill14564
08-16-2024, 04:04 PM
Does everyone realize this is the smaller once per year fee on your taxes? Not the CDD fee?
This is the once per year fee but that fee IS the CDD maintenance fee.
The once per month fee is the amenity fee which does not go to your numbered CDD.
Nana2Teddy
08-17-2024, 07:16 AM
We got a letter in the mail informing us of our increase. I think it was something like $85 in CDD 13.
Shipping up to Boston
08-17-2024, 07:36 AM
Question - does anyone think "elected officials" are far superior in conserving tax dollars???
‘Far superior’? Probably not
Yet the current BOCC deserves some recognition....the millage rate, I believe is at its lowest ever considered in County history.....and the lowest, non coastal rate in the state.
Altavia
08-17-2024, 07:42 AM
‘Far superior’? Probably not
Yet the current BOCC deserves some recognition....the millage rate, I believe is at its lowest ever considered in County history.....and the lowest, non coastal rate in the state.
Agree - adding 2+ billion dollars to the propety tax base per year doesn't hurt ;-)
Bill14564
08-17-2024, 09:43 AM
‘Far superior’? Probably not
Yet the current BOCC deserves some recognition....the millage rate, I believe is at its lowest ever considered in County history.....and the lowest, non coastal rate in the state.
Agree - adding 2+ billion dollars to the propety tax base per year doesn't hurt ;-)
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.
Shipping up to Boston
08-17-2024, 09:53 AM
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.
Fair points.
Municipal math and finance will always be great fodder...and sport! :1rotfl:
J71TV
08-17-2024, 02:24 PM
I received the letter about the 56% increase of the annual maintenance fee for district 14 ( Lake Denham). I found the link to the proposed budget on the VCDD website. It appears to me that the vast increase of that budget is for funding the Eastport Maintenance Advisory Committee (EMAC). The cost of that committee for District 14 is proposed to be $1.22M. It was not on the budget last year. So District 14's budget will go from $1.5M to about $2.5M. I understand that there were other increases maybe due to inflation, but this major increase is mostly for funding a committee (EMAC) which advises on the development of Eastport in District 15.
Budget attached from VCDD website.
Bill14564
08-17-2024, 02:38 PM
Eastport CDD manages the project-wide maintenance of CDD14, CDD15, and ECDD. The EMAC advises on the project-wide maintenance activities.
This is similar to the SLCDD which manages project-wide maintenance of CDD5-CDD13, SLCDD, and BCDD. The PWAC advises on these project-wide maintenance activities.
If you look in the old agenda items for ECDD and CDD14 you should be able to find the interlocal agreement that provides for this project-wide maintenance.
Goldwingnut
08-18-2024, 10:57 AM
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"?
Bill14564
08-18-2024, 11:15 AM
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"?
I understood that this was instituted in Oct 2022 and was part of the 22-23 and 23-24 budgets. Therefore, I expected a similar cost to appear in the 24-25 budget.
I guess the question is either:
1. When will this turnover that began in Oct 2022 be complete so we can stop seeing the expansion used as an explanation/excuse for more spending?
OR
2. Why are we still hearing about increased spending when the increased services began during the 22-23 budget year?
It isn't very palatable to think that a potential savings of over $300 on every $300,000 home in the Villages this year was erased to pay for expanded ambulance service OUTSIDE the Villages.
EDIT to add:
To be fair, my biggest beef is with the misleading information in the VPSDDD presentation. 1.31mills were never in play since nearly 1 mill of that was for "EMS services" that were never to be included in the VPSDDD funding.
Over the years, other than the year of the 33% rate increase, the BoCC property tax revenue has increased a little slower than inflation. The projected increase for this year is the lowest in the past five years.
Margefrog
08-20-2024, 01:09 PM
Should talk about the 31% increase for Middleton. That maintenance fee increase brings our Middleton home to $2800 for the year. I wish we were paying less than a $1000 like most of the villages.
I know of no one paying less than $1,000 per tear. The least amount I know of for HOA monthly, is $195. Rounded to $2,400 annual.
LeRoySmith
08-20-2024, 01:18 PM
I know of no one paying less than $1,000 per tear. The least amount I know of for HOA monthly, is $195. Rounded to $2,400 annual.
Marge
I think you're confusing the monthly amenity fee and the annual maintenance fee.
Shipping up to Boston
08-20-2024, 01:21 PM
Marge
I think you're confusing the monthly amenity fee and the annual maintenance fee.
And I believe HOA is not an on campus entity.....as always, stand to be corrected
LeRoySmith
08-20-2024, 01:59 PM
And I believe HOA is not an on campus entity.....as always, stand to be corrected
I think she meant Head of the Operating Administration :posting:
Shipping up to Boston
08-20-2024, 02:04 PM
I think she meant Head of the Operating Administration :posting:
Ha!
btw: All good ;)
Altavia
08-20-2024, 02:13 PM
Has anyone running across a chart showing the Maintenance Fee by district?
Bill14564
08-20-2024, 02:33 PM
Has anyone running across a chart showing the Maintenance Fee by district?
The maintenance fee varies by Unit in each District, just like your bond. I've never seen a single chart or collection for all Districts but you can find a chart for a particular District by looking at their past meeting agendas.
Thrwre is a search function but I haven't figures out how to use it properly.
June seems to be the month to discuss changing the maintenance fee.
LeRoySmith
08-20-2024, 02:43 PM
The maintenance fee varies by Unit in each District, just like your bond. I've never seen a single chart or collection for all Districts but you can find a chart for a particular District by looking at their past meeting agendas.
Thrwre is a search function but I haven't figures out how to use it properly.
June seems to be the month to discuss changing the maintenance fee.
I just found several while playing with the search. I was also surprised that it varies within the district.
Altavia
08-20-2024, 03:15 PM
I just found several while playing with the search. I was also surprised that it varies within the district.
Interesting, thanks!
Is the acres column the number of acres (in your unit?) maintained?
P A Paul
09-04-2024, 09:21 PM
Officially worried about you and the WAY OVERDUE (per your promises) about video #148.
Hope you’re O.k.!!!
Boffin
09-05-2024, 01:08 PM
Seems like some pretty hefty increases: 8-56%
Sure would like to know why.
Rainger99
09-05-2024, 01:12 PM
That is not the amenity fee.
It is the maintenance assessment.
dewilson58
09-05-2024, 01:24 PM
Seems like some pretty hefty increases: 8-56%
Sure would like to know why.
Could understand the CDD structure, budgets, etc.
Could search & read old threads.
Bill14564
09-05-2024, 01:25 PM
Seems like some pretty hefty increases: 8-56%
Sure would like to know why.
Watch the video linked in one of the other threads on this exact topic.
Reader's Digest version: It costs more to maintain grass than to maintain dirt.
Altavia
09-05-2024, 02:16 PM
Watch the video linked in one of the other threads on this exact topic.
Reader's Digest version: It costs more to maintain grass than to maintain dirt.
Right, if I understand correctly, following years will be in the $700 range, similar to other Villages south of 44.
https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/maintenance-assessment-increases-live-discussion-3-00-pm-sunday-352055/
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