Why not Impact Fees
 

I see where Lake County has approved a $500.00 impact fee for every new house built in Lake County. I believe at one time, before the economy crash, that the impact fee was somewhere around $3,000.00 per house. This was when we lived in Lake County and I know the county built several new schools out of impact fees. Why not an impact fee for Sumter County? I know it's like a tax and when you close on a house there are already certain taxes. But what if you could actually see the money going for something for the residents? The county could approve an advisory board to oversee and make recommendations on the use of the money. if the money was spent wisely, it could even help build a State of the art Performing Arts Center for the area. Obviously, most of the money would come from The Villages, and as we have long ago outgrown the Savannah Center, it would greatly advance "the arts" for the entire area. Some of the fees could be used to improve our crowded roads too. The increase of new people moving into The Villages and Sumter County will continue to put a "strain" on the lifestyle of our residents. This is why such fees are approved. If we had such a fee, what and who could benefit? More population certainly has its disadvantages and more people are coming!

Any Performing Arts Center for this area would be charging a whole lot more money for a ticket than the Savannah Center. With the uproar on this forum a short time ago about the $125-$175 per ticket for the Willy Nelson show at Savannah, I would find it doubtful if residents of this area would be willing to shell out high prices for the performers.

As for "our crowded roads" - what crowded roads are being talked about? These roads are NOT crowded at all. Any of us from a city of over 90,000 can tell these roads are anything but crowded. I came to The Villages from the Washington DC area. Now, THOSE are crowded roads! My wife and I laugh as we go driving around The Villages about how the traffic is so light as compared to Rockville Pike or The Beltway at rush hour as we calmly drive up Buena Vista to Nancy Lopez Legacy Club for dinner.

Besides those facts, impact fees would probably be spent on improvements to schools or housing in Wildwood instead of on items that would be specifically designed for residents of The Villages.

justjim - don't look for impact fees in sumter county to build your performing arts center - talk to some professionals in the booking business - they will tell you that there are a sufficient number of venues in the area and any more would be over saturation...cannot/will not book an entertainer in one area that will reduce ticket sales in a neighboring area...the further apart the venues are - the better the odds that folks will travel to see a good entertainer, thus the higher ticket sales and gate profit.

re building more roads...which ones do you think need improvement and which cause a strain on our lifestyle? surely you don't want to see 466, 466a, buena vista, morse widend in order to accomodate even more cars - do you?

On the planning table are widening Rolling Acers Rd from 466 to just behind Rolling Acers Plaza and widening 466a from 2 to 4 lanes from just east of TV to 441. Both in my opinion are worth while projects. Both of these projects are outside of TV.

The problem with impact fees are once they start when will they end?


VG

Perhaps it is because Sumter does not feel they need impact fees. They are doing pretty well on taxes. They have also done pretty well on keeping up with road improvement. Most of the crowded roads I see are state roads or Lake County roads. Of course my definition of crowded may defer from others.

I believe there is a group now in place working on developing a performing arts center.

Just what we need......more government and more fees.....get real:blahblahblah::throwtomatoes::boom:

impact fees
 

Sumter county all ready has a impact fee for residential homes and comercial construction. Should we add more costs to building homes?

:bigbow::BigApplause::agree::bigbow:

Why would you want additional fee's? For anything? Every fee, every tax, every time government at any level increases something it will NEVER go down. It will only go up, get worse, hire additional wasteful bureaucrats, more people to find new ways to tax and spend your money. They do not know how to cut cost, lower expenses, they only know how to spend more. I can names hundreds of new revenue sources that governments put in place that were supposed to be for a very specific purpose and once they got their hands on the money it went someplace else. Never ever ask for new sources of revenue for any government entity. They will always waste it.

:agree:

Just like the money spent on lottery tickets was suppossed to go for new schools, hospitals, etc in the New York area. Where is all that money going to? To pay for the admin costs of the lottery system.

:bigbow::bigbow::clap2:

I do not know about New York lotteries but the Florida lottery does quite a bit of funding for the Florida schools. In 2011-2012, the Florida lottery gave $777,000 to Sumter county schools. Go to their website for the full scoop.

Florida Lottery - County Contributions

And while you are at it go for a state income tax
Soon you will be like the great state of IL

I want to from this state to TV to get away from Taxing Anal Probe


STOP IT NOW

There have been impact fees in Sumter County since I bought my first house in 2000. As I recollect, they were in the two to three thousand dollar range. I don't know if they have been rescinded.

Most of the time I just keep my mouth shut and read. Occasionally I chime in with some observation about a topic in this forum. But honestly, as one who spent 30 years in a public service career, I take a little offense at your statement about "wasteful bureaucrats" and feel compelled to respond. I guess I am one of those wasteful bureaucrats of which you speak. I spent a career as a public school teacher, elementary school principal, and a a statewide education department. I don't recall trying to waste your money, nor did I ever.......ever come in contact with someone else whose goal was to do that. We always tried to provide good service to the public, most of the time with meager budgets.

Yes, people want good roads, street lights, public buildings, parks, police and fire protection, armies, sanitation, health standards, etc, that government provides. They just don't seem to want to pay for it. You tell me friend, in increasing populations, with increasing public and social demands, and increasing inflation, how government budgets are supposed to continue to provide service, but at the same time be cut. It's simple arithmetic. It doesn't work that way.

You state, "They will always waste it." What? Are you serious? Remember that the next time you cash a social security check, take advantage of Medicare, vacation at a state or national park, drive on a paved four lane, or see a service man walking down the street. Remember that when you see school buses taking children to learn and back home and providing them with a hot meal and supervision all day long. Remember that when you see bridges, overpasses, hydroelectric dams, public utilities, road signs, and public universities. Remember that when you see firemen and policemen risking their lives to protect us all. Remember that when you think about this country and all the dedicated and honorable public service employees who make it run every day.

Has government ever wasted a buck? You bet, every day. And so has everyone else, including major industrial corporations, and every small business owner who ever made a payroll in every hamlet in America. They waste too, but they don't call it taxes, they call it prices and pass it on to the consumer. I'm not complaining. Thats just the way it is. You spend to grow and show progress, except in the private sector its called research and development and innovation and in the public sector its called waste.

Just stop it. Stop the government bashing. Stop the anti-tax nonsense. Do I want an impact fee in Sumter? Not particularly, but if they create one, I'll try to be constructive in seeing that it works for me too, and when it does I'll appreciate it.

Please I'm not going to get sucked into this but Social Security among other examples is an awful example. My private investments have grown at many multiples of my "Social Security " investment I wonder why that is???

Cedwards: I do not wish to hurt your feeings nor denigrate your standing. However despite ever increasing educational costs America's standing in education against other countries is 17th. And while we do better in universities it is because of immigration and not a result from our high schooling programs.

The OP welcomed impact fees. The OP might consider that Sumter County village residents are charged a bond in addition to the land and domicle unit.
Perhaps I was misled but it is my understanding that Lake county village residents did not pay a bond.

We don't need more taxes. We need better money management by our public servants. They are quite wasteful and use our taxes to futher their re-elections. It is all getting maddening. Seniors would not be dealing with the hemming and hawing about social security and medicare if our public servants kept their hands off of the fund. Public sevrants for the most part perform like teenagers on spending steriods with a newly acquired credit card and they know how to recklessly spend our money.

I don't blame Mickelson in the least for his comments. the recent tax changes by the fed and the state of CA bring him to 60% tax rate and that is just plain obscene

Thanks for your response. I don't recall advocating for more taxes. I just stated that its not all "wasted." On behalf of all public servants across America (and I'm not talking about elected public servants, I'm talking about the bureaucrats referred to in the comment) I'm sorry you feel that way. You get what you pay for. I'm done.

I think the Sumter County Commissioners do a good job keeping our taxes low and providing services.
Impact fees should not be used for building a performing arts center.
You don't belive that Mickelson pays 60% in taxes.........really!

I thank you for your dedicated service and your commitment to such a valuable career. However for every one of you that did as you stated, I can find 20 who did not. I am a teacher advocate, but look at the teachers unions who refuse being held accountable with testing. Look at those other public employees who take as much as they can get. Toll agents who work triple overtime in their final year so they collect 175% of final year salary in retirement. Look at our elected (bureaucrats) who refuse to cut any spending and want more revenue. They refuse to support a $1 in cuts for a $1 in new revenue.

All wasted? No. Way to much wasted? Yes. Sorry but I stand by my original comments and will always refuse to support any new tax or fee until those making the decisions find ways to reduce spending.

Thank you for a good, common sense post. I too was a public service employee, and I don't think the public really realized how much dedication and hard work there is from these employees.

Yes, I do believe that he pays 62%
Under current tax rates, Mickelson would pay 13.3 percent in state income tax and 39.6 percent in federal income tax. That's 52.9 percent combined. Medicare and Medicaid is an additional 2 percent. The new health-care levy is .9 percent on earned income and 3.8 percent on investment income.

Now figure in gasoline tax, property tax, personal property tax, sales tax, etc, etc,etc.
Each of us probably pays FAR more in taxes than we realize.

Toll agents who work triple overtime in their final year so they collect 175% of final year salary in retirement.?????????????????????????????????

You must have made that up. Can you support that statement with facts?

You will find such supporting data in this Bloomberg article:
Port Authority Seeks to Increase Tolls as Overtime Pay

I'm sure he has a good accountant and doesn't pay anywhere close to 62%.

IF Phil Mickelson does pay 62% of his millions in taxes, he should fire his tax advisors IMMEDIATELY!!

in new jersey, where schools are supported primarily by local municipal property taxes [with a modicum of state aid] we have:
566 towns
BUT we have:
603 school districts
21 counties
AND we have:
624 school superintendent positions - some of which are supported by a schol business administrator!

tell me there is no waste in education!

I actually agree with most of what Cedwards38 said, but not all school and public administrators are as moral and conscientious as he. Many are brazen and perpetuate this:

"DALLAS — At a state agency in Texas, the executive director is receiving a $123,000-a-year salary even as he is drawing a government pension, as he has for the past eight years. In a struggling Michigan school district, 10 administrators retired, started drawing pension checks and returned immediately as contract employees. A school administrator in Illinois makes a combined $409,000 a year in pension payments and salary for overseeing a public boarding school.

Double-dipping — the well-established practice of public workers collecting government pensions and salaries at the same time — has become a hot topic for lawmakers across the country during these times of severely strained budgets and increased focus on the benefits provided to government employees.

Yet even as some states have begun curbing the practice, a review by The Associated Press found tens of thousands of state and public school employees across the country drawing government salaries along with their pensions. In five states alone — California, New York, Texas, Florida and Michigan — at least 66,000 government retirees also receive taxpayer-funded paychecks.

The practice has come under fire not just because of the cost of paying both a pension and a salary to the same person. It also can strain public pension funds because the rehired retirees draw from them but do not contribute while taking the place of workers who otherwise would be paying into the system.

Of particular concern are people who retire early, only to take another government job and draw pension annuities for many more years than they otherwise would.

State governments already have a combined $690 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, meaning they do not have enough money coming in to meet their future obligations.

“I don’t see any private entity that would allow this to happen, and I don’t see why government should allow it to happen,” said....."

Double-dip incomes draw scrutiny | timesfreepress.com

:shrug:I thought we were talking about FL....how did NY and the other states get involved here?

Whitestone Bridge in NY, toll is $6.50 in each direction. Original toll was put in place for bridge upkeep. Now the tax payers pay for all bridge maintenance as the tolls are used 100% to pay toll taker wagers and retirement. NY Times did an expose on this in 2004. Toll takers all refuse overtime when a co-worker is working his or her final year so that the retiring worker gets all the possible overtime. Their contract for retirement pay is based at 80% of their final year salary plus any overtime. So during that last year they work all available OT to raise the retirement pay to 175% of final base pay. They have finally started to resolve the problem with EZ pass lanes (2005).

After a bit of research, it appears that Sumter County had a $397.00 fire rescue impact fee that was rescended in September 2012. I did not know that! In addition, there appears to be an impact fee for roads---and the amount is rather confusing but commercial pays so much a sq.ft. And it appears that residential homes do too. Lake County as noted in the OP, just put into place a $500.00 impact fee on each new house, however, all TV new home construction is in Sumter County. Nobody, including me, wants to pay more taxes (fees) unless there is a darn good overall benefit to the community. So, newbie's from 2005 until September, 2012 paid a fire rescue impact fee. New homes subsequent to that do not pay the fee. I have been told that the new fire houses do not have EMT'S. The next few years there is going to be considerable growth in south TV along Rt 44 and the near Brownwood Area. Macy's, Dillard's, Costco, HH Gregg and others---who knows what the future holds. 200,000 plus with other non-village subdivisions in the area not unrealistic at all for this area of Central Florida. Fortunately or unfortunately, the newbie's don't have to pay the $397.00 impact fee for fire rescue in Sumter County. If and when the growth comes, it will be too late to be our problem.

Who gives a rats patootie what they do in New York.:blahblahblah::duck:

:BigApplause:

I called the tax department the other day and they mentioned the Fire Tax but I assumed it was a long standing and perpetual fee. From the OP, should I assume it was a one time fee?

I too have a history of public service with 34 years of it. I would agree with you if the poster was using the term of bureaucrat to mean those in positions like yours and mine. I might be reading it wrong, but I believe the term bureaucrat was being used to describe those that determine just how much of the taxpayers dollars will be taken from them and where they're being distributed to, and those decisions are being made by the politicians, not us rank-in-file employees who do work hard for modest rewards... at least modest in comparison to those decision making politicians! As such I take no offense from the remarks you reacted to!

Who gives a rats patootie that you don't give a rats patootie about what they do in New York.:blahblahblah::duck:
__________________
I'm not really an old grouch either, don't cha know. :1rotfl:

Seems that if there is a need for something then a group of investors should get together and build it. I see no reason to tax everyone for a project that would not benefit all.

I can not agree more wholeheartedly.

If you would take the time to read all the posts in the thread before making snide remarks, you would see that I was answering someones question in a previous post in this thread.

Hi Bogie Shooter: Some clarification... As to County Commissioners I cannot address their performance?

What I mentioned in passing were some government obligation levied by Sumter County.

As to Phil Mickelson what I cited were his nominal federal and state taxes. What he actually pays only his accountant knows. I do hope however that he has a good accountant.

Politicians who peddle "its your patriotic duty to pay taxes" make me ill. This is especially so since so many of them have cheated Geithner, Rangel, etc.