The gentlemen running for County Commissioner LOVE The Villages. They all live in The Villages. Someone has made this out to be a battle of the Commissioners and the Developers. It's not.

Here is Mr. Estep's response to the claims.

"I hesitate to respond to advertisements approved by the incumbents, but I feel this one has to be addressed. The incumbents have gone too far with their latest Mail Chimp push full of incorrect information, thereby exposing their lack of integrity. I will address each falsehood individually with facts.

“World class health care, high paying jobs, safe neighborhoods.”

The first two belong to the developer with his incentives and the outstanding employers in the county, the last one is the Sheriff.

“Low taxes (the lowest in the tri-county area and we just voted to reduce them even more)”.

The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) is the Taxing Authority on only one line on the tax bill. It is the Sumter County line on the Ad Valorem tax statement. It shows the millage rate at 6.7 for 2019. Marion and Lake County have lower millage rates in 2019 than Sumter County. Please do not spin the numbers by adding other items on the tax bill to what you commissioners passed. To say you are lowering them even more is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Sumter County.

“It’s been our task the past several years to ready our County for such progress”.

The BOCC missed the boat on that one in 2015 when THEY asked the developer to grow south of HWY 44 as reflected in the public record. There was a lack of foresight from 2015 until the 2019 hike in taxes.

“Strong Law Enforcement”.

Absolutely…and you have nothing to do with managing that law enforcement piece. There is a Constitutional Officer (the Sheriff) that manages that agency and he even does all the budgetary planning.

“Delighted to see the development of more family friendly housing – neighborhood where people who work in Sumter County can live here too.”

Once again, this is the developers doing and not the County Commissioners. Please quit taking credit for successes you have little or nothing to do with. The people of Sumter County see through this.

“Now is not the time to hand over control of our County to Democrats and others who want to change direction – raising our taxes”.

This is a two-part response: 1) There are no Democrats on the ticket. I am a lifelong Republican. The other challengers are also Republicans. 2) It is preposterous to even mention raising taxes. No challenger has mentioned raising taxes, and the five incumbents raised it 25.5% last year. Conservative Republicans do not raise taxes 25.5%. I have never seen anyone in any party raise taxes that much before. Yet you continue to call the challengers names. Gutsy.

“Underfunding our law enforcement”.

Bald-faced lie. None of the challengers have indicated a cut in law enforcement of any kind. In fact, as a retired State Trooper, public safety in all areas has my total and unrelenting support. Stop lying to the good citizens of Sumter County.

“Imposing job-killing fees and regulations”.

My apologies for not knowing my own platform. I didn’t see that part in my platform. The truth is we have 76 streams of revenue coming into the county less interest, and we have communications and compromise to work with. There is no plan for job-killing or unnecessary regulatory changes planned. Will there be adherence to comprehensive planning and back and forth communications…you bet.

“All we have to do is watch the evening news to see what happens to communities when Democrats hold control!”

This statement is a new low. To accentuate the misery and pain others are suffering right now with what is going on around the country is unconscionable. You should be ashamed of yourselves for even trying to politicize this issue.

“We have all worked too hard to create the great lifestyle we enjoy here in our community to allow Democrats to sneak into power!”

Again, no Democrats on the ticket, and we should let the voters decide who should serve the people. This statement points out a critical difference in the challengers versus the incumbents. Calling it “power” shows that the incumbents are focused on the “power” and not the public service aspect of the BOCC. The challengers are all running to become public servants, and not focused on the power. We will let the people decide Aug. 18 if they want to continue with lies and innuendos, or if they choose honest, open, and transparent government.

Villager Craig Estep is a candidate for Sumter County Commission."

There is no twisting words when your husband , Oren Miller, who is running against the incumbents stated in writing that he would DEFUND entertainment !!! 😳

Your husband, Oren Miller, has stated in writing that he would not support funding of the entertainment on the squares.....

You are now trying to defend his actions by deflecting the issue by stating in essence, Oh don’t worry about anything, the Developer will take care of it ......

It is clear that Oren, you and the rest of the EMS team are against growth in Sumter County and now you are back pedaling so fast that I’m afraid you have fallen off the bike !!

To me and A LOT of Sumter County residents have real concerns about the fact that Oren has now changed his political party THREE TIMES AND COUNTING !!

Does he change parties every time he sees the opportunity that it may be of benefit for his personal and political aspirations ???

We sure would like to know the answer to that one....

And please, don’t tell us that he “saw the light “ !!! :shocked:

Your post is right on except for one little detail. We all know that property taxes went up by 25% last year after about 10 years of steady declines.

With all due respect, I disagree.

One line item in your bill may have gone up 25% but your total out of pocket increase did not.

The OUT OF POCKET tax increase for most was in the range of 7 - 11 %

As stated above, Oren Miller’s out of pocket property tax increase was 4 %

If you would like to PM me with your real name, I would be happy to go to the Sumter County Taxes website and calculate your total out of pocket tax increase between 2018 and 2019.....

One of the reasons why your taxes might be close to the 25 % figure is if you are a seasonal resident without the Homestead discounts.....

We just moved here in Feb and going by what I have seen in the Sun and from other folks we have met.

Somewhere in my paperwork we have what previous owner paid in 2018 and 2019 and when we get our first tax bill in a few months will see how it has changed. Will even dig out her stuff and compare.

BTW we are full time and will even get homestead exemption for next year.

Ohh no !!!! Hope my line dancing lessons Were not a waste

First let me explain... I don't know if this will make sense to anyone and I know people who don't support EMS will balk at this regardless.

First, the $120,000 doesn't go to the musical part of the entertainment. Regardless, I will let you know where it goes.

" Sumter County has Been giving money to the entertainment division for years and the money comes from the bed/breakfast taxes. (Only to Sumter landing and Brownwood, Spanish Springs is in Lake county). This is not by their decision alone. It does not go just to entertainers, it goes for rentals, decor, security.
Many farmers market days are set up by the entertainment division, special events (heritage days, holiday events, car shows) of which many people are in attendance for free."

Regardless, the thought process was the residents would want the money to go to the schools and not so much the entertainment that he believed wouldn't go away because they didn't get those funds.

He was wrong and changed his stance. The whole idea of being a commissioner is listening to the residents... He is listening.

Angie - Thank you for the clarification. I guess, as you dig deeper, you find out that it wasn't just entertainment, it's also for the farmer's market and special events. (I think even more people would be upset if this funding was pulled!!!). I appreciate that Oren changed his position.

If the hmmm was because someone
 

thinks I’m a stalking horse for the villages candidates they would be wrong , because of ridiculous rules in Florida you can only vote by party.I’m from Boston where local city council races are non partisan so a large group of voters are left out and no I do my want to change my party to vote not ever , but if m a long term resident and want this place to keep growing and bring more business , medical and life style changes and do this while keeping the lowest tax rate in n Florida

Music on the Squares is not going to disappear, and the $120,000 the Developer's puppets give to the Developer to subsidize it is chicken feed. Voters need to focus on the main issue in this year's County Commissioner race. The main issue is that the current County Commissioners are representing the Developer; they are not representing the residents and that is costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

This relationship between the Commissioners and the Developer has only recently gained wide attention due to the puppet Commissioners' enacting an incredible 25% County Tax increase. They did that for one reason: to offload on to us, the residents, the costs of the county infrastructure necessitated by the Developer's massive expansion of The Villages, which massive expansion has been rubber-stamped by the Commissioners.

That infrastructure should be paid for by increasing the Developer's sweetheart impact fee. For those residents who still don't know, an impact fee is a per-house tax on a builder that is SUPPOSED to pay for the infrastructure necessitated by the new construction. Infrastructure includes not only roads, but also such things as additional parks, police and fire stations and equipment, government buildings, and libraries.

By raising our taxes, while keeping the Developer's impact fee at an incredibly low level, the puppets are, in essence, giving the Developer hundreds of millions of tax dollars at our expense. Keep that number in mind when getting wrapped up in a debate about the County's subsidizing the Developer's music on the Squares for $120,000. It is the hundreds of millions of dollars that is causing the Developer to spend whatever it takes to keep his puppets in office and to run fake candidates to disenfranchise 45,000 voters.

In fact, the Developer has contributed about $250,000 to the incumbents' campaign. The Developer didn't do that for the $120,000 music subsidy.

I am glad the Morse family does not read this forum. If they did, they probably say “screw you” and close up shop. They have brought millions dollars of revenue to this county, created 1000’s of jobs, and have created a community that has no rivals. Yet you have people who do not understand business or are simply ungrateful continually try to tear down this community. This is what EMS team and the POA want. They claim they are “for the people”. But they are not. It is about power. That is all the POA wants. If you follow the CCD meetings you can see the creep of POA influence. Believe me, if the POA told Mr. Miller to not support $120,000 going for entertainment on the squares, he will vote with the POA.

The Developer contributes 50% of the expense for the entertainment.

One good reason they would not leave is the billions of dollars they have made and the profits they continue to make here.

Still learning about how this place runs but no intention to play sheep