[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Robbie0723

I'm confused, the bill says impact fees can be increased up to 50 percent?

How is that different from what the commissioners approved?

Going from memory so...

I believe the bill allows 12.5% per year and no more than 50% over four years but the commissioners raised the fees by 75%.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by kcrazorbackfan

I really think it’s damn funny that you people ****ed off at the Developer still live here; there are so many people that don’t like what they do but continue to live here.

If I hated a place as much as some of you do, I’d sell (for a very good profit) and move to the place that you think is Nirvana.

The vast majority love it here but not happy with the local politics that is extremely corrupt and starting to do something about it.

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Going from memory so...

I believe the bill allows 12.5% per year and no more than 50% over four years but the commissioners raised the fees by 75%.

Thanks!

So what's wrong with capping and limiting the rate of increase of impact fees over time?

[Northwoods]

So, in retrospect, would “we” have been further ahead if the current Commissioners would have taken the 40% offer from The Developer? Or at least tried to negotiate... maybe nudge the number up a bit?

[Joe V.]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

The vast majority love it here but not happy with the local politics that is extremely corrupt and starting to do something about it.

Do you have any evidence of a crime of corruption to share with us?

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by Joe V.

Do you have any evidence of a crime of corruption to share with us?

There is what one can get away with when they have the resources to always ultimately get their way, and then there is doing the right thing.

[Advogado]

Originally Posted by Joe V.

Do you have any evidence of a crime of corruption to share with us?

There is plenty of evidence of corruption, and the evidence is well known to residents who don't rely on the Daily Sun for their local news.

That is why the Developer's puppets got booted out, last year, IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY by a 2-to-1 margin. Is it criminal corruption and can enough evidence be found for a criminal conviction? We will only know the answer if Florida law enforcement conducts a serious investigation, which seems unlikely. (The people with first-hand knowledge of the relevant facts are unlikely to heed your request to share the evidence with us.)

If you are really interested in understanding what has gone on and continues to go on, take a look at Hage's co-sponsorship of legislation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Developer (at the expense of Sumter County residents) while apparently on the payroll of the Developer and T&D.

[Two Bills]

Originally Posted by Advogado

There is plenty of evidence of corruption, and the evidence is well known to residents who don't rely on the Daily Sun for their local news.

Probably in the same place as all the stolen, and fake votes from the last election searchers still cannot find!

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

You know there are residents of Sumter County outside the Villages, whose streets are impassible with potholes. There are residents of Sumter, Marion, and Lake County whose children have sub-par public education, but can't afford private school for their kids. You know there's an entire section of the Ocala Forest filled with homeless people (yes, there are drug addicts among them but there are also just flat out poor people too), who have no resources to build themselves up to a better life, because those resources rely primarily on donations from people who are choosing to spend their money on dinner at Augustine's and trips back to their summer homes up north instead. You know there are tens of thousands of underpaid workers who have chosen to accept a handout from the government, because the federal government is willing to give them a living wage, and if they stay at their jobs they have to apply for food stamps and housing credits and medicaid (courtesy of the taxpayer).

Our tax dollars will pay for all of this, whether the developers pass their impact fee on to homebuyers or not. Whether we spend it on medicaid for the homeless, or improving schools so fewer people NEED medicaid, or fixing roads to people can get to work - since "public transit" is a joke in this state...

I'd like to see a reduction in taxes and an increase in services. That will NEVER happen so long as development continues developing at the pace it develops, while the developer pockets the profits and doesn't share the wealth with the county that provides it with all its permits.

///

[Dond1959]

Originally Posted by Advogado

There is plenty of evidence of corruption, and the evidence is well known to residents who don't rely on the Daily Sun for their local news.

That is why the Developer's puppets got booted out, last year, IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY by a 2-to-1 margin. Is it criminal corruption and can enough evidence be found for a criminal conviction? We will only know the answer if Florida law enforcement conducts a serious investigation, which seems unlikely. (The people with first-hand knowledge of the relevant facts are unlikely to heed your request to share the evidence with us.)

If you are really interested in understanding what has gone on and continues to go on, take a look at Hage's co-sponsorship of legislation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Developer (at the expense of Sumter County residents) while apparently on the payroll of the Developer and T&D.

You can believe there is corruption but as a former SA of the FBI you know a case has to be built and brought to court with a conviction to prove that allegation. We are far from that.

But the biggest stretch in your comment is the “hundreds of millions” comment. Let’s say the developer builds 2400 new homes each year, which is pretty close for the past 4 years. The increase was 75% or about an additional $700 per home. That is $1.68 million per year. As a former finance guy I can tell you with certainty it would take over 50 years to reach even $100 million, much less hundreds of millions.

As I have stated in the past, it is your exaggerations of facts that hurt your arguments.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Northwoods

So, in retrospect, would “we” have been further ahead if the current Commissioners would have taken the 40% offer from The Developer? Or at least tried to negotiate... maybe nudge the number up a bit?

That's hard to say for a few reasons:
- The 40% offer was only on the small portion of new construction that is assessed the lowest impact fees.

- The 40% offer came with a catch, impact fees for the rest of the new construction where the larger impact fees are paid would have been locked with no increases for several years.

- The bill to limit impact fees was still going through the legislature. It could have been determined that the 40% would still be lowered under the new bill but that the agreement to freeze the rest of the fees was still enforceable.

- On the other hand, if the bill had allowed the terms of the agreement then a 40% increase for some new construction might have been greater than a 12.5% increase for all new construction.

[Advogado]

Originally Posted by Dond1959

You can believe there is corruption but as a former SA of the FBI you know a case has to be built and brought to court with a conviction to prove that allegation. We are far from that.

But the biggest stretch in your comment is the “hundreds of millions” comment. Let’s say the developer builds 2400 new homes each year, which is pretty close for the past 4 years. The increase was 75% or about an additional $700 per home. That is $1.68 million per year. As a former finance guy I can tell you with certainty it would take over 50 years to reach even $100 million, much less hundreds of millions.

As I have stated in the past, it is your exaggerations of facts that hurt your arguments.

While you are a former finance guy, I am a former corporate lawyer who used to have to review business plans and cut through the unrealistic assumptions that you finance guys would make.

As I have stated in the past, my figure of “hundreds of millions” is not an exaggeration. In a nutshell, while the exact amount of the impact fees that the Developer should be paying cannot be calculated without an impact study, it is instructive to look at what he would pay in Collier County, which has done the study for a retirement community's impact on county infrastructure. In that County, the Developer would pay more than $20,000 more per house than he pays here. Go to the Collier County website for proof.

The Developer is going to build 60,000 additional houses here. 60,000 houses x $20,000/house = $1.2 billion value to the Developer from his sweetheart impact fee (and cost to the current residents). Furthermore, the $1.2 billion does not include the amount the Developer gets from the sweetheart fee on his commercial buildings.

But you are right, the 75% road-impact fee increase was not enough to total what the Developer should be paying. In addition to roads, the Developer needs to pay an impact fee for other county infrastructure, like fire, ems, police, libraries, parks, government buildings, etc. He would have to pay it in Collier County, where he doesn't control the County Commission. He, and not the current residents, should be bearing the cost here. If you were following the news, you would know that our new County Commissioners have voted to conduct an impact-fee study regarding those additional infrastructure items. However, the Developer appears to have out maneuvered our new Commissioners in Tallahassee.

Bottom line: if anything, my figure of "hundreds of millions” is far from an exaggeration. It may well be an understatement of the benefit to the Developer and the cost to the residents.

BTW, what do you think of Hage's actions?

[Bogie Shooter]

As I have stated in the past........over and over.

[JP]

It's nice to see commissioners who overstepped their authority stopped.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by JP

It's nice to see commissioners who overstepped their authority stopped.

Assuming you mean the current commissioners, in what way did they overstep their authority? You may not agree with what they did but many did. Where was the overstep?