Impact fees sumter co.
 

I've been here 19 yrs and won't be affected by what's happening in Sumter Co over the impact fees because I live in Marion Co.

My question is what changed??? I may be wrong but I thought in the past the builder paid the impact fees for the infrastructure of a new village and then that was added to the cost of the house in our bond?? If so why did it change?

What changed:
The massive amount of new home construction south of 44 required that many new roads be built and/or upgraded. The impact fees fell far short of what was needed to pay for the roads. So a 25% property tax (millage rate) increase was passed two years ago specifically to pay for the roads.
Current property owners are vigorously objecting to paying additional property taxes to fund the Developers expansion. People feel that the impact fees should be increased instead.

I would think a reasonable compromise would solve this.

If you want to read a totally one sided discussion of this read todays Village Sun written by an employee of the developer.

Or, alternately, after 15 years of budget mis-management via aggressively reducing the local property tax rates (and then bragging about it), they now want to push the needed catch-up investment in county infrastructure onto the unsuspecting new home buyers, who btw, are already paying for their local infrastructure via cdd bonds.

Wrong.
25% went to roads and many other expenses.

It is comical when the paper trots out the supposed young couple who wants to move to Sumter county and if the impact fee raises the cost of their house by $ 3-4000 they will be priced out of the market.

How is that comical? That is real money to some people. If that is comical then it is even more comical that a false narrative is being pushed by the other side that everyone saw a 25% increase in taxes and that they were only for the construction of roads. Neither of which is true and raising the rate on the developer will have negative consequences and probably not result in a lowering of taxes. Growth causes a need for an increase in services which results in tax increases.

Read any of the articles in the developers paper pushing a very one sided view of this.

Responsible journalism is not what the paper is about.

I have said this before and will say it again, there is plenty of room to compromise on this.

If $4,000 will make a difference in being able to afford a home then you already cannot afford it. Living paycheck to paycheck BY CHOICE is foolish. Taking out a loan that leaves you no money for savings at the end of the month is foolish. Purchasing a house that requires a loan that leaves you no money for savings at the end of the month is foolish.

Who did NOT see a 25% increase in the millage rate for Sumter County taxes? Who claimed the 25% increase was only for roads?

Growth causes an increase in the tax base which leads to increased revenue and pays for increased services. Discounted impact fees result in a deficit for every building erected - more growth = more building = more deficit.

Unless there is an argument that the 2019 impact fee study is faulty then let's stop arguing about increasing the impact fee and start talking about whether the County can continue to support a 60% discount of the impact fee. When Publix ends a by-one-get-one sale it is not accurate to say they raised prices when they really only stopped a discount. The County isn't proposing to raise the impact fee above what the 2019 study found was fair, they are proposing to reduce the discount that has been in place for some time now.

Reducing the discount to zero will probably not work. Keeping the discount at 60% is not working today. Raising ridiculous arguments and spewing false information is making it impossible to have the conversations necessary to come to a mutually undesirable but workable solution.

Thank you for saying it better than I did.

I would encourage everyone to study both sides of the arguments and go to the board meeting later this month. The road impact fees are about 80 items for various residential and commercial development. The developer is only one line item. So if you increase the fees by 150% as allowed by state law all of those 80 items are raised by 150%. For example, the UF hospital and research facility will go from a $1 million dollar fee to over $3 million. Don Wiley, aka goldwingnut, has a great YouTube video that shows how much various buildings impact fees cost now and what they will cost in the future if the proposed raise in fees is passed.

So maybe you say, I don’t really care, I have all the stores, doctors, and restaurants I need. The problem is the thousands and thousands of people south of 44 who do not have all the commercial development to support them. Guess where we are headed? That’s right, to all the commercial development north of 44. So don’t complain if we crowd the restaurants, shopping, or doctors offices. Golf courses are also on the list of 80 items, so maybe the developer just puts in more houses and not golf courses, I will see you at a championship course near you.

With the increase in the road impact fee the developer will keep building. The question is will there be commercial development south of 44. Two things could happen. First, commercial development stops or slows dramatically. This will cause pain to everyone, south and north of 44 as the homes continue to crack out. Second, commercial development could move to Lake county to support the population. Depending on the costs to build that may be where we are headed. The problem will be Sumter will not only miss out on the road impact fees from the development but will also miss out on the ongoing property taxes from that commercial development in Lake county. Which would lead to guess who paying more taxes, that’s right the good old homeowners.

Welcome to your new world.

And do you not think there is room to compromise on both sides?

There was a compromise that was instantly turned down was there not ?

When our house was built our impact fee was $2582.08, the new impact fee now is a little $2600.00. The developer fee starting around sometime around 2015 or 2016 is $901.00. So he is saving about $1681.00 on every house he builds. Multiply that time about 60000 and see what number comes up. You might be surprised at the additional funds he is making on the homes. He is the only one getting the reduced rate.

Must be new to the topic and Sumter County.
If TV paid the full scheduled fee, it would have been passed onto the buyer.
60,000 home since 2015/2016..............Not.
TV is NOT the only on getting the reduced rate.