Step in the right direction for the new Sumter County Commissioners
 

Congratulations are in order for the new Sumter County Commissioners. Today’s Daily Sun reported that the developer volunteered a 40% impact fee increase on all new homes built in the Villages. That certainly would not have happened if the 5 prior commissioners were still in office. Let the independent analysis and negations finally begin as a starting point has been identified. I will be interested to learn how much of the 25% property tax increase can be rolled back (revenue neutral) under that scenario.

Here is hoping that all parties involved can agree on the appropriate impact fee increase/property tax roll back that strikes the proper balance between putting the financial burden of new development on existing county residents and those responsible for the development.

I wonder how much that is going to increase the cost of a new house in Sumter County?

But all these other new developments are getting a free pass? That's not right either.

Since the current fee is $962 and 40% would be $385 more, they will probably round up the price by $5000

This will have no affect on the 7,000,000 sq. ft. of industrial space TV is building, nor will it affect their commercial and medical development, nor will it affect condos and apartments TV may be building just outside of The Villages. They have a lot going on in Sumter so passing on a thousand dollars or so to each new home will not affect their bottom line.

Napkin Math: $1,000 of new Impact Fee will rollback 1% tax increase.



So, a $25,000/house impact fee is how the three Promise Givers will rollback 100% of the increase.


I did not read the article, but if The Villages offered a 40% increase, or about $400.......taxpayers might get 1/2 of 1% tax rollback. :1rotfl:
Oh wait, inflation just ate that up. :1rotfl::1rotfl:

Thankfully I don't think there are any TIF's in Sumter.

Any amount of roll back is better than none. Inflation is not dependent on roll back.

I appreciate the move by the developer.

Election promises are like lead balloons.
They don't fly.
Never have. Never will!

this should have never been an issue.. the developer should foot the bill.. why make established homes pay for it... especially since they already paid when their development was built

The developer blinked first. Congrats to the new commissioners but the impact fee should have been raised to 100% of the recommended fee. Hope this is only round one in the negotiation. Property tax should drop by 8 percentage points.

Developer threw the cheerleaders under the bus. LOL

About $400 maybe the Developer will just eat it.

Share your math.



:1rotfl:

I kno, never said it was. :ohdear:

Very little. For the average new homeowner you're probably talking 7 to 10 dollars a month on a mortgage so the reality is it hardly affects the sales of the home but it does take a chunk of money out of the developers pocket before the sale is finalized

It's very simple if the development is in Sumter. The fee will get paid depending on how the law is written and the type of construction

I can't understand the total lack of common Sense for the commissioners. There's no negotiation necessary they pass the laws. Roll the infrastructure taxes back the way they were to be comparable with the county surrounding Sumter. And result will be real estate taxes go down total taxes collected should stay similar roads will get built. If necessary something will just simply issue a few bonds that are paid by the taxes

I couldn't find the article but if the developer in The Villages offered a 40% increase on new homes in The Villages then while it is a step in the right direction, it is a very small step.

- If I understand it correctly, all developers in Sumter County are now paying only 40% of the impact fees. A 40% increase means they will pay 56% of the impact fee. Better, but still a good discount.

- This seems to affect "new homes built in the Villages." If you look at the impact fee schedule, there are rates for commercial development (high), new homes outside the villages (medium), and new homes in the villages (low). This is a 40% increase on the lowest tier only.

- It was reported that it is not legal to charge higher impact fees to one section of the market and not to others. It could be determined that this offer cannot be accepted since it would only apply to a portion of the market (only new homes in the Villages).

The offer, if given in good faith, is a positive sign but be careful not to make more out of it than is really there.

If there first offer was 40%, I would suggest they are expecting a higher counter offer. I would offer 90%, a 10% discount!

Share your numbers.

So if he is willing to offer up 40% he knows he already getting one hellofva deal. Why can't he just pay what the bill is and be done with it? He obviously knows he's been getting a deal at the expense of everyone else. Time to pay their fair share and put the tab on those who benefit from all the roads to THEIR houses!!

Wonder what this “volunteering” by the developer got him under the table, now and in the future, from the commission?

The Offer Has Strings Attached
 

While it is a good sign that the developer is willing to come to the table, what they are offering is peanuts compared to the real impact fees of developing south of Rt. 44. Plus they are asking that that rate be frozen for four years. Most other Florida counties calculate impact fees on the real increased costs like fire stations, additional police, additional schools and yes, roads. The 2019 Sumter County study which is supposed to determine the total additional costs to the county ONLY includes the additional road costs. Because of that, the Sumter County taxpayers are footing the bill for all those other costs. It’s time to raise the impact fees to the amount recommended in the 2019 study, without a 60% or 44% discount for the developer. Commissioner Estep campaigned on rolling back the 2019 tax increase and raising the impact fees to the full 100%. Everyone who voted for the EMT team last August and again in November should send an email to Commissioner Estep reminding him of his campaign promise. His email is craig.estep@sumtercountyfl.gov. Remember, impact fees are paid only once, the tax increase in 2019 is included in our taxes EVERY year.

Even if it affected their bottom line slightly, how many billion do you need.

Impact Fees
 

I don't think asking a billionaire how many billions you need is a legitimate question. However, no matter how you slice it, making personal profit on public "investment" i.e. taxes, is just simply wrong. Issue some municipal bonds and let the investors gain a return on their investment.

You don’t get to be billionaires by spending their own money. You let somebody else pay for it.

Well, if each family member had one.........that would be $18bil. They are $16bil short. You asked.

Haven't you figured it out yet??
Impact fee @ 100% WILL NOT offset a 2019 tax increase rollback.
Why did you vote for them and their "I have a promise, but no plan" ???????????????
:ohdear:

M French
 

The developers are billionaires. It’s a drop in the bucket for them.

:bigbow:

It is not up to the developer to "offer" to pay 40%taxes.
 

When did the idea become popular that the developer is magnanimous by offering to pay tax.

The elected officials decide the tax rate, the tax payers pay it. End of story.

He used to decide his tax rate, but those days are supposed to be over.

A step in the right direction?

Have we lowered the bar for the new commissioners? Correct me if I am wrong but they campaigned on an almost complete rollback of the 25% tax increase.

I am not informed enough to make a credible opinion on whether they have reneged on their campaign pledges so I am interested in others opinion on this matter.

Are they keeping their promises or not.

My impression from this discussion is that the answer is no.

We are relatively new here (just over a year) and rather confused.

Sumter has been growing rapidly and revenues have outpaced expenses so on a yearly basis the real estate tax rate has been slightly reduced for the past 10 or so years.

Please correct me if I am wrong but it appears that the developer decided he should not have to pay in the future for all of the expenses involved in building out new areas and the commissioners agreed and Sumter county started picking up the cost. This necessitated a 25% increase in our real estate tax.

If this is correct how did we get all of this development with business picking up this cost in the past and now people are saying development will come to a standstill if businesses have to pick up the cost?

By the way economists do say that businesses pass on all taxes to their customers but that is not always true. Due to competition they cannot always do so.

Please explain in a very civil manner.

Close to correct.

"They" say, no such thing as a Corporate Tax.
& welcome to TV business........no competition.

:icon_wink:

What’s to negotiate? A new home price carries its proportional share of the total cost of new infrastructure.

Never has, Never will.

You appreciate the move by the Developer? You must
work for one of his employee-dependent businesses.

It will be interesting to see that. Can't wait. Making it a little more realistic.

Developer Makes a step albeit very small step in the right direction
 

The Developer invests in new infrastructure and then sells it to the CDD.
The CDD in turn puts a lien on your property in the form of a bond. Homeowners pays this bond back via your tax bill ( non ad valorem tax). None of this infrastructure is part of your home price.

The Developer is making a step, albeit very small step, in the right direction by offering to increase the road impact fee to a higher % of the calculated roads impact fee.

The Developer's offer is a one time increase in the road impact fee of ~400$ on each new home. Approximately 2,000 new homes are currently being built in TV each year. The total payment is about 800,000$. Even going to full payment produces only a onetime payment of 1.6 M$ each year at the expected construction rate of 2,000 houses per year.

The "25%" tax increase was basically an increase in the ad valorem tax rate. Listed below are The Sumter County ad valorem tax revenues per the County budget:
FY 2019 =58.8 M$
FY 2020 =82.1 m $ This is an increase of 23.3M$ and is perpetual
FY 2021 =90.2 M$ Another perpetual increase of 8.1M$
FY 2022 =95.6 M$ Another perpetual increase of 5.4 M$
FY 2023 = 101.2 M$ Another perpetual increase of 5.6 M $

So you can see that the offered increase in impact fees can not reduce the ad valorem tax rate appreciably.

The real question is where does all of this increased ad valorem tax revenue go. The County Commissioners should be studying how the increased revenues are used. They should be advising the citizens how the revenue is used and justify the expenditures with information that shows the increased revenues are being used appropriately.

IMHO, the Commissioners should task the County Manager to produce this information

AMEN................The Developer knows it is a great deal, that is why he made the offer............