[Burgy]

Originally Posted by jrandall

As a resident of Sumter County, I oppose the proposal by Oren Miller and Gary Search to raise road impact fees. Sumter County is a model for the State of Florida for Economic Growth and has been attracting business to it for the past several years. The proposed increase is outrageous! The increase will further decimate businesses impacted by the Pandemic and will make investing in Sumter County by potential incoming business less palatable and will likely steer many away. Also I am even more concerned that we may lose the potential for UF to build a hospital and medical facilities in the south which is definitely needed with our growth in population. The raising of the impact fees will damage our Community for years to come.

Seems to me after 10 plus years, the commission never raised home taxes very much , then tried 25% and got booted out. Now the replacements are trying to tap commercial sources. The news quotes appear substantial. I think the county and commission is too pro growth and should be slowed down. We don't want or need to be the fastest in the country, it leads to these problems. We don't need to stifle business owners either.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by irishmartin

Miller and Search’s platform they run on was about not raising taxes like the previous commissioners? Is this another bate and switch?

Originally Posted by merrymini

Disgusting, to propose that kind of a tax increase, and yes, it is a tax increase, after running against a large tax increase.

The Daily Sun articles appears to have been successful in misleading some that the new commissioners are proposing a tax increase. What the are proposing is a reallocation of how the impact costs associated with new development are paid for.

Another way to put it is that they are not looking to raise additional revenue for the county, instead they are looking to have the cost of new development paid for by the parties that are responsible for the development and stand to benefit the most from it.

There is clearly a tipping point, somewhere between the current sweetheart impact fees and raising them to what is considered full impact fees, where raising the fees too high would be detrimental to all parties involved. If the commissioners hire a respected professional who specializes in this kind of analysis, who is truly independent of the developer, I would fully support going with their recommendation. Under the prior commission, a truly independent study was never done, resulting in the current sweetheart impact fees being highly subsidized by the 25% property tax increase.

[JoMar]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

The Daily Sun articles appears to have been successful in misleading some that the new commissioners are proposing a tax increase. What the are proposing is a reallocation of how the impact costs associated with new development are paid for.

Another way to put it is that they are not looking to raise additional revenue for the county, instead they are looking to have the cost of new development paid for by the parties that are responsible for the development and stand to benefit the most from it.

There is clearly a tipping point, somewhere between the current sweetheart impact fees and raising them to what is considered full impact fees, where raising the fees too high would be detrimental to all parties involved. If the commissioners hire a respected professional who specializes in this kind of analysis, who is truly independent of the developer, I would fully support going with their recommendation. Under the prior commission, a truly independent study was never done, resulting in the current sweetheart impact fees being highly subsidized by the 25% property tax increase.

I believe the advisors hired by this bunch of commissioners are also not in favor of raising the impact fees......which is one of the reasons they delayed.

[john352]

When were the voters in Sumter County ever asked if they want to pay the added property tax burden to make ”Sumter County is a model for the State of Florida for Economic Growth”?

By state laws, the county must have a balanced budget. In 2019, the five County Commissioners (who favored the developer over the current residences) increased the property tax rate by 25%. To rollback that rate increase, the new Sumter County Commission either has to reduce services or find additional revenue. One obvious source of revenue is to increase the one-time fee for the permit for new construction (impact fees). The current residences of Sumter County did not ask for the expansion of The Villages and should not be paying for any part of that expansion. Increasing the impact fees is an obvious way of shifting the burden from the current residences back to the developer where they always belonged.

[Syd2008]

We need to stop talking about the developer only. Very narrow sighted. How will this affect all businesses in all of sumter county. Our commissioners asking for so much may need a lesson in economics.

Smaller tiered increases may be an option. Crazy that most seem to like living In a great community provided by developers foresight but some just bash them.

[Bogie Shooter]

Well, what about Costco & Trader Joe’s? Will higher impact fees encourage them to come to Sumter County?

[Aloha1]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

One sided talking points taken from the Daily Sun.

Were any of them falsehoods? The head of UF Medical said as much at the meeting.

[Aloha1]

Originally Posted by john352

When were the voters in Sumter County ever asked if they want to pay the added property tax burden to make ”Sumter County is a model for the State of Florida for Economic Growth”?

By state laws, the county must have a balanced budget. In 2019, the five County Commissioners (who favored the developer over the current residences) increased the property tax rate by 25%. To rollback that rate increase, the new Sumter County Commission either has to reduce services or find additional revenue. One obvious source of revenue is to increase the one-time fee for the permit for new construction (impact fees). The current residences of Sumter County did not ask for the expansion of The Villages and should not be paying for any part of that expansion. Increasing the impact fees is an obvious way of shifting the burden from the current residences back to the developer where they always belonged.

First, they elected the Commissioners (we are a representative republic, remember?). Second, in reviewing my purchase agreement for TV, I do not see a clause that says "When you move in, all growth and building will stop". And third, you always have the option to sell and go elsewhere but don't count on no more growth or state taxes wherever you go to.

[Rsenholzi]

The impact fees are charged against the builder. They have been consistently 2/3 ‘s lower than the surrounding townships in Florida. They are paying $900 while the lowest amount charged in the area is $2300. Why should we absorb the cost of the builders fees? Why should they get a break when they are the ones making millions of dollars

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Rsenholzi

The impact fees are charged against the builder. They have been consistently 2/3 ‘s lower than the surrounding townships in Florida. They are paying $900 while the lowest amount charged in the area is $2300. Why should we absorb the cost of the builders fees? Why should they get a break when they are the ones making millions of dollars

No townships in Florida.

List of municipalities in Florida - Wikipedia

[Marathon Man]

Originally Posted by john352

When were the voters in Sumter County ever asked if they want to pay the added property tax burden to make ”Sumter County is a model for the State of Florida for Economic Growth”?

By state laws, the county must have a balanced budget. In 2019, the five County Commissioners (who favored the developer over the current residences) increased the property tax rate by 25%. To rollback that rate increase, the new Sumter County Commission either has to reduce services or find additional revenue. One obvious source of revenue is to increase the one-time fee for the permit for new construction (impact fees). The current residences of Sumter County did not ask for the expansion of The Villages and should not be paying for any part of that expansion. Increasing the impact fees is an obvious way of shifting the burden from the current residences back to the developer where they always belonged.

That's not how it works. Elected represetatives make the decisions. They may or may not ask for input from residents. We all know that, right?

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

No townships in Florida.

List of municipalities in Florida - Wikipedia

Do you also have a link for the impact fees in the counties around us?

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Rsenholzi

The impact fees are charged against the builder. They have been consistently 2/3 ‘s lower than the surrounding townships in Florida. They are paying $900 while the lowest amount charged in the area is $2300. Why should we absorb the cost of the builders fees? Why should they get a break when they are the ones making millions of dollars

$900 is the fee for a standalone home in a retirement community. A better comparison would be the fee for a home not in a retirement community or the fee for a fast food restaurant.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

I am for a *modest* tax increase. Or tax rate increase. Or whatever that thing is, that people refer to when they talk about a 25% increase in Sumter County. I feel 25%, for whatever it is, is too much to jack it up all at once. On the other hand, the County needs to have enough of a cushion every year that they can afford an emergency situation (flooding, tornadoes, sink holes, bridge decay, etc) without worrying about going into the red. If they're already in the red, they need to get out of it. And that means the revenue stream has to increase.

And so I'm also in favor of a modest impact fee increase. Not 150%. More like 80%. It's currently around $900/unit. Make it $1500/unit. That's only $600 more per unit than currently, it can EASILY be absorbed by the developer, OR passed on to new homeowners, without anyone feeling a pinch.

If you spread out the increased revenue needs among both property owners -and- developers via impact fees for new construction, everyone tosses in a few quid, and no one feels like they're shouldering the entire burden for everyone else.

You could -also- have a residential tenant tax, since they don't own property and aren't building new construction, and in that way you can reduce the burden of taxes on the landlord (who has to pay for all the units), while still requiring him to toss in a few quid of his own. A residential tenant tax might be as little as $2/month extra for income-restricted properties, and as much as $20/month extra for luxury apartments.

[angiefox10]

Please share this so people can understand what is going on. Thank you....

The Daily Fun decided to post yet again their propaganda so I feel compelled to post yet again the truth.

The sky is NOT falling.

My sources tell me those trucks setting out there during the meeting…. They are brand new trucks purchased to the tune of $500,000 each bought with our tax dollars. It’s estimated that the villages spent 50 Million just last year on new “stuff” and the new building on 470. Which sources tell me is only going to be there for about five years since they plan on putting homes there in five years.

One of the many emails I received…the one that said it best….

“My husband is an employee of one of the Villages subsidiaries. He, along with MANY of his co-workers were strongly urged, and in a lot of cases "expected" to park their work trucks in that parking lot and sit through that meeting. My husband had NO IDEA what any of that was about. It wasn’t until he sent me pictures of the parking lot that I even understood where he was or what "meeting" he had been ordered to attend. He doesn't involve himself in politics at all. He had no idea what he was doing. Other than simply, "reporting for duty for some overtime pay". . He was told if "it" goes thru, they may all be without jobs.”

So… most of the people in that room were paid to be there. Overtime pay. And threatened with jobs if “it” goes through.

Look folks. The Commissioners are NOT raising the taxes on the people. They are raising the impact fees on the developers so they can lower the taxes on the residents giving you and I more money to spend in the stores that they would like to say that will suffer.

Can you explain to me how a restaurant like Blue Fin can suffer from us having more money in our pockets? The shops are not developers and are NOT paying more to the county as the Daily Fun would have people believe. The only way this affects the shops is that we have more pocket money to spend in their stores


If we reduce every property owner’s real estate taxes, maybe they could spend the extra money and help put the 2,000 unemployed people in Sumter County back to work.

Remember when the Daily Fun told us the villages wouldn’t build any farther than 466A? And it did. Remember when The Daily Fun said they wouldn’t build past 44? And they did. Now they want you to believe if they have to pay their fair share and pay for the infrastructure that is actually part of THEIR development then the whole economy will suffer? True, they won’t make the profit on the homes that they were making. I think I read it’s about $1,400 for a $250,000 home. (Which they will pass on to the buyer, bless their hearts). But they will continue building. This is the golden egg. They will continue to build.

The people who were at that meeting never voted for the new commissioners in the first place. Those were the Villages subsidiaries… They don’t care if the taxes go up to build the streets in The Village… They have the money to pay it. They have our money!

Where I come from, when something like The Villages is being built bringing in MORE taxes, our taxes usually go down, NOT up! And to say they haven’t gone up in years so it’s OK… NO, it’s NOT OK. There was no need for the taxes to go up in the first place AND there is more to Sumter County than The Villages. There are roads and infrastructure in South Sumter that need work. We live in a beautiful county. It’s time we have commissioners who care about the whole county and work for ALL the residents and not just the developers. Isn’t that what they promised to do? Isn’t that what they ran on?

The Daily Fun was nice enough to post this picture of their trucks blocking the parking spaces so the residents couldn't get in.