[kappy]

Todays Daily Sun states that the following increased in October, 2020 over the previous year; commercial sales by 9.3%, general market sales by 4.3%, food and beverage sales by 13%, medical revenue by 162% and building materials by 28%. Just below that the paper tells us that the Citizens First Bank had an increase in assets by 26.3%. That seems to show that The Villages business community is doing very well, even during a pandemic.

Since The Villages sales of homes drives the market in our community, how could the increase in impact fees really hurt the economy in our area? The businesses will continue to follow the population growth of The Villages. Increasing the unreasonably low impact fees will allow our County to begin rolling back the totally unfair 2019 tax increase of 25%. Let the two Commissioners who are delaying the vote on raising the impact fees know that it is now time for the increase that they campaigned on. Send an email expressing your thoughts on this matter to; gary.search@sumtercountyfl.gov and craig.estep@sumtercountyfl.gov. Let’s put this controversy to rest and get on with the business of growing our county.