Sumter County Fire Assessment Increase
 

161% increase, Yikes!

Have not seen or heard anything regarding. What is the new amount they are seeking?

$124 to $323.34

I guess now we know why Sumter County did not release estimated county fees for fire assessment during the referendum. I know people were worried about The Villages fees and the taxes for the Villages Fire Department but at least the Villages Fire Management was open as to what their fees and taxes would be. I am sure the fees would have been much higher for the rest of Sumter had the referendum passed. The Villages Fire district would have had the majority of the homes and the highest residential tax assessments in the county. The county wanted to spread these dollars over the whole county. Protection is very concentrated so cost are probably less per home in the Villages. The rest of the county is very much rural and very spread out which results in higher cost for the same protection! Hopefully this is a lesson learned! Again, than you to the Villages Fire Department for being UPFRONT on the cost of the department! By the way, this does not mentioned any increase in the county budget for fire protection which are paid with general county taxes.

Guess the village voters made an error in their vote

At one time the Villages EMS had a remarkable record of delivering heart attack victims to the hospital with their heart still pumping. To me that is the only thing that I am interested in. Is that EMS care is at least as good as their past results. We don't know yet what the true costs will be and we can always elect county commissioners that support the villages residents and not the developer in the future. From the information that I have seen a 1000 sq/ft apartment will pay $539-$344 each with no cap on the totals and no assessment ceiling.
This sounds like a Victory for everyone that voted against Villages fire district.

As I recall the "information" or possibly "misinformation" was so convoluted that neither me nor my wife could make heads or tails on how to vote. IMHO, the proposal was not handled well, and I do not believe the people actually got good information on what they were voting for or against, so I guess we are stuck with this for the next few years.....

Did the Villages even have an EMS service before last year?

Where did you find any information on the charges for an apartment? thought the building owner would be charged.

Under the fire district that was defeated my charges would have increased $60 at the most. Under this proposal they will increase $200 at the least. This certainly is not a victory for me but I didn't vote against the fire district.

Not that it matters now but I could share the calculations I used if you are still interested.

I agree with your assessment that the proposal was not handled well. I watched two presentations and was amazed that the funding was explained in such a confusing manner.

I expected a significant increase when the fire district was defeated so not surprised. I was disappointed that we lost a fire chief that gave his heart to The Villages, that defeat was more painful. I suspect the actual increases will be significantly less (aren't they always) but they are more than they needed to be. I also credit the POA for the defeat, many I talked to didn't try and learn, they just followed the POA and voted against the district because they were told by the POA to do that. Lot of that goes on here.

I wish people would see the POA for what it is - A bias
Political organization!

Hopefully Don Wiley will weigh in on this.

The fire tax doesn’t cover the cost so the county's general fund tax rate must be higher to cover the shortfall of fire.

The amazing heart attack survival rate in the villages mostly has to do with the AED program most villages have.

Not the first, and won’t be the last.

You nailed it....And it's a shame that the POA has so much political influence. This is just another example of how a small group of "haters" continue to steer so many "trusting" residents in the wrong direction for their political gain.

The slower response time was due to the large number of Covid cases being taken to the hospital. My next door neighbor died of it. There were extra duties for dealing with a contagious disease, and the time per trip was much longer than usual, what with decontamination procedures that had to be followed. That’s why people got all upset and were impatient and wanted a change. This is one of the results.

So, what happened to that 3% inflation rate.

Either way Villagers were going to pay a higher fire fee. There was no guarantee that if the independent fire district was passed that we would not also be paying for the rest of the county.

Well said

Property tax decrease
 

Even my small home will save $100 in property tax decrease of 7.5 per cent. Half million dollar house breaks even.

It hasn't been increased in 17 yrs.

If it had been incrementally raised ~$11/yr, would anyone be up in arms about an outrageous increase to provide an any moment life or death service?

Sumter County is getting a big "ego" with the gold rush to develop into another booming city. They sure are raking in the doe and taking their sweet time to fix the horrible roads and massive increases in traffic.

Not totally related but this country is going to have a serious homeless crisis if they don't reign in housing costs.

What property tax decrease? You should pay the same amount as last year…. plus the $200 increase in the fire service fee.

The information about the cost of protection was confusing because the proponents wanted it to be with calculations of land value, market value, tiers etc. The bottom line is the country decides the level of service it wants for its citizens and the cost is the cost. The method of funding has always been a set dollar value for each dwelling and the county funding vis a vie with property taxes the difference. Now the county wants to add cost with new services and employees etc. To do that they plan to raise the fire tax and reduce property taxes so that they can say they lowered or maintained the tax rate and the “misinformed citizens caused the fire rate increase. Do not be misled. The decision to keep the current system maintains the transparency of cost to homeowners. How much the overall cost is, does not change. How you pay for it always reverts to the homeowner and I would much rather see a funding process that can be understood. Want lower fire rate, don’t support a reduced property tax and or question the need for “add on” services.

Fire district vote was a mistake
 

Well said. The county is using the fire assessment increase to offset their contribution to the increased cost of the fire/ems services due to the addition of ambulance services. So instead of increasing the cost proportionally across the entire county via the county tax rate, village residents get to pay more because the cost is per rooftop verses assessed property value. This basically doubled the increase most village households would have incurred if the fire district had been approved.

Too many new people follow the POA, without doing their own investigative work, and it has resulted in bad choices for the board of commissioners, and now the fire department. People who do not want to dig into the subject matter shouldn’t be voting.

Busy this morning but this afternoon I will spend and hour to type up all the details and post them here. Bottom line the primary cause of the increase is the incorporation of the ambulance service. Previously it was a private service that cost the county/VPSD nothing, the problem was there were only 6 or 7 available in the entire county and once they rolled there were no longer available this led to very long wait times for transport. 45-60 min or more for an ambulance was unacceptable to the residents and they voiced their concerns to the BOCC. BOCC listened, VPSD listened. There are now about 16 ambulances staffed and on call 24/7 and staffed by firefighter-paramedics in the county. The cost increase you are seeing is to cover this additional availability for what is not covered by insurance for the actual transport service. This is what the county residents wanted and BOCC/VPSD is delivering. This cost increase was coming no matter which way the IFD vote went, the IFD vote did however impact how the costs are distributed, I'll touch on that in detail later today when I have more time.

WHOA they think we are all made of $$$$$$$$$$ so much for tax decreases you would think with all the new builds they would lower it some

That is simply incorrect. If the independent fire district had passed it would have been independent and separate from the county!

I know it was complicated and perhaps could have been explained better but to keep blaming the developer is inexcusable and irresponsible.

The independent fire district was approved by the Sumter County Commissioners, the Florida Legislature and signed by the Governor.

Blaming the developer is ridiculous; three of the five Commissioners were supported by the POA.

How about spreading the increase out over a few years?

Nope. You get what you pay for.

Sometimes that is correct but other times things are done more efficiently.

Number one , no where in my post is blame attached to anybody. Number two, there was and is nothing stopping Sumter County from using property tax money to fund the Sumter County FD.

1) there will be increases in future years
2) they need to pay those bills this year.

The fact that they don’t is odd.

The County funds both VPSD and SCFEMS with assessment dollars (the new $323) AND tax dollars.

Had the IFD passed, the County would not have funded the VPSD but there was no guarantee that my tax dollars would not have continued to fund the SCFEMS. Without the IFD my tax dollars fund both.

So then, how do we get back to having an IFD?

I concur. Got my official letter today. That is a steep increase.
Is there a definitive reason why?