Taxes are probably going to increase. We wanted better response time from the ambulance - better service is more expensive.

If the improved response time saves your life, your spouse’s life or your best friend’s life, is it worth a few hundred dollars?

It’s like the people who complain about course conditions, and the high greens fees, you can’t have it both ways.

Heart attacks are not the only medical emergencies they respond to.

So why not address MUTUAL AID and emergency responses outside of The Villages? Looks like a pretty lopsided delivery of services. I suspect our neighboring emergency services departments are salivating over what they will get on the backs of Villages tax revenues. That alone will represent a huge service delivery cost obfuscated by the smoke and mirrors of local government budget and tax administrators. The explanations you offer are beautifully written. I wonder if the costs of supporting neighboring
tax districts through UN-MUTUAL aid
was intentionally left out.

From post #13.
Correct, crossing county lines to create an IFD would be incredibly complex, there will be agreements in place between the IFD, Lake County, and Marion County for mutual service. From the public's stand point, there should be little change from what we have now.

If there is little chance from what we have now then why change? Hopefully change will be either quicker response time or lower cost. In the end the change will more likely be quicker response time and TBD increased cost?

:shrug:

From now until Oct 2023:
- The VPSD exists today.
- The VPSD will provide ambulance service starting in October.
- The funding for the VPSD comes from the County budget - the Commissioners set the funding level.

If the IFD does not pass, that is what we will have in Oct 2023 as well.

If the IFD *does* pass then beginning in Oct 2023 the funding for the VPSD will be controlled by the IFD and not by the County Commissioners.
- Property taxes in September 2023 will show the two new funding lines for the IFD (a non-ad-velorem line of 0.75 mils and an ad-velorem line of up to 1 mil)
- *Ideally* the Sumter County property tax line will be reduced by about 1.65mils

The IFD is all about securing a funding source and organizational structure independent of Sumter County. No possibility of Sumter County underfunding the VPSD and no possibility of the VPSD being rolled into (or brought under control of) the SCFD.

Nice of them to include Lakeside Landings in the fire district.

Everything is speculative. No guarantees things get better. And no one will tell you the cost

Operationally, it is my understanding that new ambulances will replace the fire service trucks that the Villages Fire Dept. would send out on 911 calls to then wait for the old ambulance company to arrive. The new ambulances will be stored in the same bay as these old fire truck vehicles that are no longer needed. In the past, the Villages Fire Dept. vehicle would usually arrive before the ambulance. I would believe that the new Fire Dept. ambulance would now arrive at the same time it took the old Village Fire Dept. truck vehicles to arrive. I asked a fire dept. official if there would be some cost saving as the Fire Dept. is now the ambulance service provider. I didn’t get the jest of his response. At a few stations, there may be two ambulances available?

Am I to assume that this is for Sumter County residents only?
And how will this effect Villages Residents from Marion and Lake counties? Pretty important point I believe, seeing as some our the amenities fees that should be used for ALL of us seem to be going to Sumter residents only.
Please reply

The new fire district is for the Villages in Sumter County and will be paid for by residents located in this fire district.

Amenities fees collected are administered by AAC in the older sections of the Villages
VCDD Amenity Authority Committee - AAC

and PWAC in districts 5-11 with no transfer of funds between these two independent public entities.

Village Community Development Districts

Good question!

Yes, $4.08 of each month's amenity fee is applied to the Villages Public Safety budget so there should be some accounting for the residents that live in Lake and Marion counties for these funds.

One might assume that these funds would be used to offset some of the mutual aid costs incurred by the VPSD when/if the IFD is approved, but I don't know the full answer to this question. You need to ask this question to the District Manager, Kenney Blocker, as he and the district staff are dealing with the funding side of the VPSD/ISD issue.

It has been stated this is ONLY a change to how things are funded. Not how services are provided. And it's been said there will be little to near zero change to the homeowner tax costs, but that appears to be up for debate.
If this is all true, then how will any EMS services change between keeping as-is and making the change? If the new district has nothing to do with service delivery, then why are they promoting better service as a need for the district? Just do it now.
Things don't add up. What is the real truth and why are some officials saying contradicting things?

Maybe ask these officials?