Sumter raises taxes again , cuts money for music at squares
 

Current Sumter commissioners supported by the developer voted to raise taxes and cut funding for music at the squares as reported in Villages News.
This is another example of how the current developer plans to radically transform The Villages from the vision of the founder Harold Schwartz that has been so successful.

If people's taxes have gone up it is because the appraised value of their home is greater.

The money for entertainment on the squares comes from the Merchants on the squares.

I can't understand the logic of cutting the money to fund entertainment on the squares. I believe the entertainment is funded through this year. This means the "new" commissioners will have to make the decision to reinstate it, find another way to fund it, or stop entertainment.
I wonder if the current commissioners did this to "stick it" to the incoming commissioners.

The way I understand the cut is that it is only Spanish Springs in Lake County. Music will be funded to the end of the year, and the funding could return at a later date.

LSL and Brownwood are not changed.

SOME of the money for entertainment on the squares came from a Tourist Development grant from Sumter County, with the money raised via tourism taxes. Last year's was I believe $120,000 to both Brownwood and Sumter Landing, since Spanish Springs Town Square isn't in Sumter County and therefore doesn't get Sumter County grant money.

Also, taxes have gone up because Sumter County raised taxes last year. Perhaps you were absent for several months' worth of threads on the subject right here.

The second question, what will the new commissioners do?

It's reverse of that. Sumter County abolished the tax. Lake County is unchanged.

Exactly.
In my opinion, if the new commissioners are smart, they will reinstate the tourism tax and keep funding the entertainment at LSL and Brownwood.
But, I'm afraid the new commissioners will say The Developer should pay for it. "Entertainment sells homes so The Developer should fund it." Well... The Developer has sold a lot of homes during the Pandemic, without entertainment.

I do not expect the developer to pay for the entertainment. Hopefully the merchants will continue to do so and the county will reinstate the tourist tax.

Please note that discussion of local tax increases or changes, County elections, etc. are not necessarily considered to be political per TOTV rules. It's a valid area of interest to many residents.

However, any such comments that reference national political parties or one's feelings about same, that tie local elections to national ones, or that otherwise veer off topic will continue to be removed and sanctions given if warranted.

:coolsmiley: Thanks! Because I think this is a very important topic. (and it has nothing to do with national politics)

THE OP said taxes were raised AGAIN. It didn't happen twice. If the taxes have gone up this year it is because the homes may have appraised more just as I said. I wasn't absent. Were you?

:confused:I'm confused. Didn't the EMS group (as they like to call themselves) run on the promise to STOP the entertainment funding from the County? I seem to recall the wife of one candidate talking about it on this site. :oops:

Correct!

Sounds like a lot of misinformation

Gary Search is the only one left running on the current ballot. The other two are elected. Vote for Gary Search now, and get rid of the last commissioner who stuck it to us last year

Lets hope he somehow didnt get bought and paid for.

The OP is spreading Fake News AGAIN.


The mill rate went down.

News flash—

Big chunk of funding comes from county entertainment tax

County raised the real estate tax rates

The millage rate went down as promised. If your taxes went up, it was because your appraised value went up, school county taxes went up, etc.

But they could have lowered millage even more ! Last year's taxes went up 50 million!!!!

This year it was about 3,500 to 5000 homes sold as well as several million square feet of retail and warehousing added to Sumter this alone would have been more than enough to gather in more real estate taxes to pay for any reasonable cost for running the county

Just again you do realize that the politicians can lower the millage rate as much as they want to have what is called the same taxes as they see you before in total collected for the budget it is entirely false to say that your taxes went up because your home values went up. It is strictly up to them to decide how much money does the county spends and how much yet decided to collect

You should look at where the dollars went and what taxes were collected. Your assumptions won't help.

Look at the estimated tax bill you received prior to the taxes being decided by state law you must receive this. Further even though where we can see is different economically, you should look at Marion Sumter an orange and read about their tax increases or decreases. You should be coming informed taxpayer and actually take a few minutes out of your retired lives 2 IDI actual budgets you don't have to be an an accountant to look at where money is being spent. Important things are school systems hospitals infrastructure payroll Etc

Just answering a Political Post....

Not exactly. In Sumter, about 2400 new homes were sold so that is new tax revenue. I believe a similar number of used homes were sold. Since the used homes will typically start off with a new and higher assessed value, assuming the buyers weren't moving from another home in FL, there is probably some incrementally higher tax revenue associated with those homes. Regarding whether the increased revenue from both new and used home sales was "more than enough ... to pay for any reasonable cost for running the county", you would need to take a look at the county budget to draw such a conclusion.

While the business in the squares contribute to entertainment, I wonder if they were being assessed for entertainment while they were closed for a couple of months, AND AFTER opening back up had very slow business. With still NO entertainment from March till October, did these struggling businesses have to pay?
Maybe that’s why some left after their leases were up, the were tired of HIGHWAY ROBBERY.
They had no problem charging homeowners for refuse pick up AFTER the hurricane when we had the refuse sitting in our yards for weeks OR at the disgraceful amounts at some postal stations FOR WEEKS.
Maybe the drink stations should start footing some of the bill, always looks like THEY rake in quite a bit nightly.

Are you really going to start complaining about yard debris pickup after Hurricane Irma? Really? The county was inundated with yard debris for weeks and was not staffed, nor should have been, for such infrequent events. My garbage was still picked up. Yard debris sitting around for a few weeks, when dealing with a huge volume of material, is not a problem.

I have to say that I am sick of the whiners about the taxes! I have owned homes in multiple states and multiple areas of Florida. Sumter County has been and continues to be the lowest property taxes. Yes, last year your taxes were raised for the county portion on the property tax (which is about 33% of your total property taxes) by 25% which raised your overall taxes by about 10% (rounding) but this was after, I believe 14 years without a tax increase for Sumter COUNTY TAXES! They could have raised the taxes every year by 2% and no one would have had an issue but we would have had even a larger tax bill last year! This year the tax rate for Sumter County did not go up based on what I saw on our TRIM notice!

Also, The new Commissioners ran on a promise that they would lower taxes and ELIMINATE the Squares subsidy! Sure it would be nice if they could reduce the taxes but I for one do not want the end result to be less services or reduced maintenance to our streets and infrastructure. We have it REALLY REALLY good here.

Let’s hope the new commissioners can undo some of the damage done by the outgoing commissioners!

Of course they did.

WHAT DAMAGE? I am so worried that these new commissioners will attempt to overthrow the very well run CDD form of government and turn us into an Orlando.

I think we need to watch the new ones very carefully because I don't like the fact that one of them shifted parties. He lost enormously in last local election when he was on the Blue team.

So they abolished the tax.........What's the worst that can happen?
No "entertainment".
None of that EXTRA LOUD crap that is supposed to be entertainment.
At least I will be able to go to the squares with my friends, sit and have a drink and actually engage in a conversation without having to yell over the volume of "music", and be able to hear what is being discussed.
Fine by me.

:1rotfl:

So glad I moved!😁

I do believe your opinion is in a small minority.

Lots of places you can go and have a drink and conversation, not as many places to have entertainment.

Wrong ! Sumter raises taxes because nothing can be done about it as a resident has no voice.

:1rotfl::1rotfl: