Thoughts about Proposed Property Tax Increase
 

1. In attending the Meeting at Colony Cottage last month Mr.Arnold
presented the reasons for the tax increase in a well thought-out
manor. I commend him for his presentation.

I have a problem in the question and answer section. Mr. Arnold is
an employee of the County and not an elected official. The elected
Officials of the county who make the final resolution should be on
the front lines to answer questions. The Commissioners are voted
into office by the citizens and should be held accountable.

The question and answer session was set up where Mr. Arnold
stated he would answer any concerns after all citizens made their
comments. From my perspective, he answered only the comments
he wanted to and left things open. Those who wanted clarification
were not allowed to follow up.

2. The Commissioners pay increase is designated by the state, but it
was not said that the State sets their pay schedule by the
population of the county. The larger The County grows the higher
the salaries. Who pays for it ..... the citizens.

3. This year my assessed value of my home went up on top of the
increase of the millage rate (my increase is 28%). My wife and I
receive Social Security and have no pension so the increase comes
out of savings. The local eating establishments and other local
businesses will take the hit because of this.

4. If the Commissioners knew of the expansion of The Villages in
2016, they must have known there would be increased costs over
additional revenue being brought in. Why did we have the
rollbacks in the millage rate? This brings me to one of the reasons
we purchased a house in The Villages 6 years ago. We were told
by our salesperson that because of the growth in The Villages, the
tax millage had been going down and once the building stops our
house value would greatly escalate since they only own property
to the Brownwood area.

5. Are the commissioners making the best business decisions for the
citizens? If we did not have the rollbacks in millage this tax hike
would not be so drastic.

Another way could be to increase the taxes in the areas where the
growth and additional costs are occurring. They could have sold
bonds the past 3 years based on the increased revenue being
projected.

6. I believe the commissioners have mismanaged the county and are
not making the existing citizens a priority. They are making
decisions that could benefit themselves.

7. In all of this, I put no blame on the developer. I believe they are
great business people and do whatever they can to continue what
they have built and trying to evolve to greater things.

When I moved here in 2014 I too was pleased by the tax rates we paid. I also knew that couldn't go on forever as infrastructure wears out and eventually needs maintenance. I also was told by my sales person that Sumter is not The Villages but The Villages is part of the County and to support the growth through out the County will eventually require tax increases. That was not a surprise as where I lived before that was also necessary and our taxes increased.....and they still do. I guess the Commissioners could have increased taxes every year to soften the blow but I suspect we would be asking for the justification and don't know that any of us would have accepted they were being raised to build a cushion for the future. I also suggest that you can vote out the current group and hire a new group but they would face the same challenges. I hear folks complain about the resurfacing on Buena Vista and Morse then in same breath complain about the cracking and pot holes with a solution of just fill the holes or seal the cracks, which never lasts. I salute those that are willing to run for office and serve, but as we continue to condemn those that do, will any of the voices that are raised be willing to step into this firestorm and go through the election process.

One question to ask is: what percentage of total tax revenues are collected from The Villages areas as compared to the rest of the county. Another is; does the proposed spending in The Villages areas approximate what was collected or is the major spending going to other area? In other words, what value are The Villages areas really getting for all their money that is being collected into the County wide coffers. The same should be asked of the bureaucrats running the local towns in which the Villages has expanded. I know that Lady Lake has built some nice rec. fields for the locals, and now wants to build a "nice" community hall so the locals "have something as nice as our Villages rec centers", and Fruitland park has gone on a spending binge with new muni. buildings, a library, etc. A lot thanks to Villages dollars.

my thoughts,...I am not pleased that the reason for the justification for the raise is only to benefit the growth south of 44. I personally do not like that we are expanding their in the first place, and won't gain any benefits from it..taxes should only be raised for those living south of 44. Just my opinion

This is how a community works. Everyone pays in to the same bucket and then the money goes to where it is needed.

We live in the US. We live in Florida. We live in Sumter/Lake/Marion county. We live in The Villages. We give some of our money to each of those communities and it is spent where they decide to spend it. Spending in proportion to who paid in is not part of the deal.

What is about to happen here in Sumter County is not any different than what I’ve experienced in other communities over the last several years. Government tends to “put off” tax increases until it becomes a near crises. As a general rule, “Planning” is minimum at best. Ideally Sumter County should have been planning for this and gradually raised the rates as opposed to a large increase that taxpayers now will have to scramble to cover.

The Tax increase that I received is about what my school taxes would increase each year in Pennsylvania. We have been without an increase for many years. Hiring more deputies for the schools as mandated by the state helps the increase.

MOST counties would have forecasted increased costs when population expands and would have put additional impact fees on property being built.
The commissioners probably don't worry about being voted out, because they could have already been promised jobs with developer.

Just wondering. Has anyone contacted the local news stations to see if they are interested in covering the meeting bringing the information out to more people about the proposed tax increases?

Lets see...the Commissioneers are raising our taxes 25% and giving themselves a pay raise...makes sense to me. VOTE them out!!!!!!!!!!

I've read all the information on the tax increase and understand to a certain degree why they need it. What I don't understand is why the percentage is so large and all at one time. My husband keeps telling me they are asking for 25% but will vote for something less. I keep telling him, "Do you see enough opposition for that to happen? I don't."

It appears to me that just as they rolled back the millage in multiple steps with the intention of giving away monies more slowly than they had to, now they are asking for more than they need up front so they don't have to increase more than one time for a number of years. What kind of financial management does this county have? Don't answer. That was rhetorical.

And replace them with who? Are you willing to run?

I agree with JoMar!

I keep reading, "Vote them out." The statement ASSUMES that the commissioners will have opposition on the ballot. From my observation of recent Sumter County elections - commissioners and school board - I have little confidence that candidates who do not have the backing of the Morse family can successfully win elections.

Smoke and mirrors.

The tax increase is all about greed.
If you haven’t driven throughout the new development area then make a point of taking friends and do it.
The rate of growth is incomprehensible!

There is no way that the developer can finance the infrastructure with bonds as we have been strapped with over the years. There is no amount of money that can keep up with this insanely fast growth unless it gets TAKEN from us.

The slow growth ( perhaps a misnomer)
Of the past is history. It’s all about greed and making the rich richer.

It’s time for grass roots revolt.
It’s not rocket science! Go look for yourself. The new development area
Is HUGE. It looks as though they are are building a new city. The bond revenues
Are not there. Miles of construction is in progress and we pay our bonds as well
As paying for the new infrastructure in the Fenny area. It’s time to raise hell.

Does anyone else find it odd that the tax increases are "proposed" and "supposedly" have not yet been voted on as final, yet they are already spending the money earmarked for the new taxes (paving of Morse and Bueno Vista)? Based on this, it appears that the dog and pony show meetings being held are a mere formality and a wast of people's time since the "proposed" tax increases are really a done deal.

Went to the meeting at Savannah last night; unfortunately it was only about 85% full. As you might have expected, they passed the tax increase. There were a number of speakers that gave fabulous options on how to change this but I'm afraid they fell on deaf ears.
I sincerely hope, someone will run against the 3 commissioners up for reelection; they may have Morse money behind them but I firmly believe there are enough ****ed off citizens to vote them out.
Please sign the petition to repeal Sumter One which means that each district will vote for and elect their county commissioner; that will make them accountable to each district.

They say that misery loves company. I guess it's true because I already feel better about my outrageous Lake County tax bill.

Sounds like a done deal to me. Time to move on IMHO.

They haven't raised the taxes forever and cities need money to work. If you don't like it...move. I'd rather pay a little more and have nice roads etc.

:agree: But there will be another one leaving that they can miss shortly! :rolleyes:

It is obvious that they committed to lots more money than they can raise. The state of Florida caps how much they can raise taxes on Florida residents. So they are going to attack their short fall by raising the tax revenues. This is prime for an injunction and court case. I am sure there are limits to what the commission can commit to without voter approval. There certainly should be for obvious reasons. I am not against a bond issue for infrastructure improvements, but it should be handled that way, a voter approved bond issue over a period of time. Yes the amount of tax you pay increases, but not the rate. Large one time payments are just that. They should not cause a rate increase forever. Increasing the rate is the easiest way to handle their bad deal from the commissioners point of view. It is not the best from the tax payers point of view. It does not allow the tax payer a say in large expenditures like this. For this reason, we should make our displeasure clear. I will not vote for an incumbent and would like to see them resign now so we can get a fresh start on a solution to their massive mistake.

At the meeting last night there were some great examples of different ways to handle the increased expenses, along with great questions. None of which were addressed by the Commissioners. Some of the questions asked by the public who read the 300 page budget were great. I was looking at the commissioners during those questions and to me the commissioners had QUESTIONING LOOKS ON THEIR FACE LIKE THEY JUST GLANCE OVER THE 300 PAGE BUDGET. Some also had embarrassing looks on their face when the subject of accepting anything from the Developer came up.

The POA should start a grassroots uprising and get a slate of individuals to run against these guys. A POOL OF MONEY SHOULD BE ACCUMULATED TO START A LAWSUIT.

Golf Cart Bridges
 

Totally agree with you.. Developer chose to purchase all that land which appears to be larger than the entire existing Villages. With so much across the Florida Turnpike. IMO there is absolutely no way our Sumter County property taxes should be paying one cent for the multiple golf cart bridges on the turnpike and Rte 44.

That is not how to justify it, just because you think it should be applied retroactively. When you say the tax went up 13 percent you based it on the entire tax bill??, The portion we are fighting is only the "County" part which has gone up (proposed) 28.8 percent.
on my $186,620 home, 2018 Market Value on TRIM Notice,
,not the "Pubic Schools" part which has only gone up (proposed) less that one percent.

Basis for looking into a lawsuit.

To find out if there are any inpropriortys between the Commissioners and the Developer. They sure looked uncomfortable last night when the subject was brought up.

24 % tax increase
 

Is that true that Sumter county wants to raise property tax 24%. Wow thats all I can say. Use to live in TV so Wow.

I moved to the Villages in 2005 from NJ. My property taxes fell by a little over 50%. Since 2005, my property taxes fell another 31%. This year’s tax increase will leave my taxes 15% below 2005. Not happy about that but not terribly surprised that a governmental unit is bad at planning.

I dont know if Doug Gilpin still works for TV but when I moved there in 2005 he did. Amazing how it works. Glad I moved. Kind of like buying a boat. Great day when you buy it and a great day when you sell it. South Carolina looks better every day for now. Just remember low taxes is one thing that brought you there now it looks like a Gotcha situation.

Read this month's POA newsletter and it explains how Sumter County "asked" Da Family (in July 2018) to keep developing south of 44 (like they weren't planning on it anyway? :oops:) for the additional tax base and instead of a developer paying for the initial infrastructure (roads/bridges/etc.) and then handing them over to a county for maintenance, as in the past...Sumter said they would go ahead and pay for all of it up front.

Hence, they needed to find the money to do that...so taxes are being raised.

The POA even states that they can't fault Da Family for accepting...such a schweet deal.

There's a whole lot of other good stuff in that particular article, so I encourage anyone wanting to know more, to... go read your POA Newsletter. :ho:

How much is the increase in $$$ per 100K valuation?

Plus the 300 dollars from my raised appraisal for no reason makes it quite an increase!!

All this drama over less than a dollar a day?

Living long enough to be retired is awesome. The bad thing is it does not last long. Use that time wisely.