Why are the taxpayers, and not the developer, paying for The Villages expansion?
 

I am going to start with a riddle: How can 5 guys screw 125,000 people--- Now I mean screw financially, not physically?

The answer to the riddle: Five guys can do this by getting elected to the Sumter County Board of Commissioners, with the support of the Developer and then financially screwing everybody in Sumter County-- except the Developer and the Developer's cronies. More specifically, these 5 guys are screwing Sumter County taxpayers by giving the Developer a sweetheart deal on IMPACT FEES, thereby offloading the costs of The Villages expansion on to Sumter County taxpayers and saving the Developer an incredible amount of money. That is what we saw happening on the evening of September 25 when the Developer toadies serving as County Commissioners screwed the Sumter County taxpayers with a 25% tax increase in order to benefit the Commissioners' patron, the Developer.

Remember the Developer put the County Commissioners in office via his “One Sumter” 2004 legislation; his campaign contributions; his propaganda organ, The Villages Daily Sun; and his promotion of directors and presidents from his front organization, the so-called Villages Homeowners Advocates (the VHA), to political office.

Until recently, I didn't know what an impact fee was. Now I do--no thanks to the September 24th front-page article in The Developer' Daily Sun, which purported to explain property taxes, but never mentions impact fees. According to Sumter County's own website: “An impact fee is a one time charge applied to new construction. The purpose of the fee is to fund capital projects for roads (such as construction, land acquisition, [sic]). Impact fees can be charges for parks, schools, jails, ambulances and other infrastructure needs that may occur due to new development.” An impact fee is paid by the builder of a new house when he gets his building permit.

If you are on a County Commission, and you want to do a favor for the guy who put you in office and that guy is a big developer, you set a REAL LOW impact fee. To put what's going on here in perspective, let's look at Collier County. In Collier County, where the Developer doesn't have the County Commissioners in his pocket, the builder of a house in a retirement community pays an impact fee of about $20,000 per house.

In Sumter County, the Developer pays an impact fee of $901 per house. I repeat $901 or about $19,000 per house less than he would pay if he built in Collier County. Stated differently the Developer is paying an impact fee of less than 5% of what he would pay in Collier County.

This sweetheart deal in Sumter County has been in place for years. Who has been making up for the lost county revenue, i.e., who has been making a gift to the Developer? We have, through higher county taxes.

Now the chickens have now REALLY come home to roost. The Villages is massively expanding, which is necessitating a corresponding massive expansion in roads and other infrastructure. 60,000 new houses times $19,000 per house (i.e., the difference between the Sumter County and Collier County impact-fee rates) means that the Developer will be paying impact fees of One Billion, One Hundred Forty Million Dollars less than he would pay in Collier County. BUT rather than increasing the Developer's low impact fees to cover the cost of the infrastructure expansion, the County Commissioners are increasing OUR taxes by 25%. (Incidentally, the One Billion, One Hundred Forty Million Dollar figure doesn't include the amount of the gift that the Developer has already received with respect to houses already built.) The Developer is certainly getting a good return on his campaign contributions-- at our expense.

The Daily Sun cites $348 as a typical tax increase. So remember, when you pay your taxes, you are essentially writing a check to the Developer for $348 (or whatever your actual tax increase is.)

Please mark your 2020 calendars on August 18 (the date of the Republican primary) and on November 3 (the date of the general election) as follows: VOTE OUT BUTLER, BURGESS, AND PRINTZ.

LET'S CLEAN UP SUMTER COUNTY GOVERNMENT

Thank you for researching impact fee variance in Florida counties and precisely summarizing the situation. Holy cow! It appears to me to be somewhat reminiscent of this fictional but well known Hazzard County operation. Boss Hogg - Wikipedia

This smells of the POA.

My tax bill went up 28.4% from last year not including maintenance and bond.

You can thank the County Commissioners for that. The current tax increase is incredible.

My name is Scott Fenstermaker. What is yours?

I am not an officer or director of the POA, although I would hope that the POA would act to try to clean up Sumter County government by trying to replace the Developer's toadies on the Commission.

These toadies are screwing the Sumter County residents with a 25% tax increase to cover the cost of The Villages expansion--instead of increasing the Developer's incredibly low impact fee.

The VHA will certainly do nothing in this regard.

My very first thought.

Why? Because it is well thought out and presented in a factual manner?

“Ignorance kills, knowledge never does.”
If the above information is incorrect, I would like to know. Exact details, please.

Here is the Impact Fee Schedule for Lake County - check the fee for the 'Active Adult' category - nothing like the fee mentioned by the OP here:
Residential Impact Fee Schedule

Cannot find an 'Active Adult' category for Marion County and only a Transportation Impact fee:
http://www.ocalafl.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=4256

Link for Sumter County fee schedule [Adobe pdf] can be found here:
Road Impact Fee Schedules | Sumter County, FL - Official Website

I think the OP's stats are apples and oranges in comparison to the Villages other 2 counties. But I have been known to be incorrect! lol

Thank you, I see $901 fee mentioned in OP’s post for Sumter county, can you also give the equivalent information on Collier county for comparison as above?

Actually, there are no other apples to compare because the upcoming explosive growth of The Villages is unique.

I did not say that the Developer's impact fee should be $20,000 like Collier County's, but it should be adequate to cover the impact of the massive expansion of The Villages--whatever that number is.

The basic point here is simple, and you are missing it if you get bogged down in comparisons: The Commissioners were faced with the choice of putting the cost of the impact of infrastructure expansion either (a) on their patron, the Developer, through higher impact fees OR (b) on us through higher taxes. They chose the latter.

Why do you think they did that?

I (along with a total of probably 1,300 residents) was at the two Commissioners' meetings where public comments were listened to, and ignored by, the Commissioners. There were people there from less affluent areas of the County, near tears, explaining that they will be faced with the choice of paying their taxes or paying for their medicine.

If you took a poll of Sumter County residents and asked whether the expanded infrastructure should be paid for by higher taxes on them or higher impact fees on The Developer, I would wager that at least 95% would say through higher impact fees.

So, why did our representatives vote for higher taxes????

Because they could?

One fact can not be ignored. If the the new Villages South development south of 44 never happened, and the area was still open space, there would be no need to raise everyones taxes to build connecting infrastructure. And exactly who is financially benefiting form the new development? Not the people paying the 25% tax increase!