What post are you responding to?

You play for what you get. The Villages Public Safety now has Fire Rescue which will save lives unlike AMR ambulance service. I will gladly pay for our first responders!

Yes, I’d rather die than go back to the ER at the Villages hospital. I would trust the trained paramedics to care for me during the ambulance ride way more than the Villages Hospital.

You will be taxed for both, they will never give that 500 back to you, that is the county money and the other is the villages. Neither are related.

I don’t think The Developer has a thing to do with fire/rescue.
It’s in the county’s purview. The Developer builds the firehouses, but I bet they get reimbursed for it.

That is not the way it works.

Quick explanation:
- The county pays for all fire protection today
- The VPSDDD will now assess homeowners and pay for fire protection in 2024-2025 and beyond
- The county is working to create a MSBU to fund the SCFEMS as well
- This will remove fire protection costs from the county budget
- The county commissioners can do anything within reason with the millage rate but in future budgets they CANNOT claim it is for fire protection

As for never giving that back, if your crystal ball is that good would you please post next week's winning lottery numbers?

Wildwood
 

Hmmm
It looks like Wildwood will finally get their own fire department? Maybe things will work just like Fruitland Park and Leesburg sections of the Villages. Perhaps unincorporated can pay their own fees for fire. Then all will be good.

Wildwood, Florida does not have their own fire department and will not in the foreseeable future.

I haven't looked at how Fruitland Park and Leesburg sections of the Villages work but I imagine all sections will work very similarly.

Unincorporated has always paid their own fees for fire protection and will continue to do so.

PLEASE take time to look at the County and City budgets and learn where your various taxes are being spent.

Yeah....pretty sure they are still Sumter County Fire and EMS

Yes and no. Yes we have to pay for it, but that is irrelevant between taxes and frees.

The question is:
Single bill for politicians divvy up as spending?
OR
Activity based billing for specific activities and beneficiaries?

The activity based is more specific and targeted, and less subject to politicians’ whims and their purchasers.

The downside is feeling nickeled and domed to death, but it’s more transparent and fair.

1$ per day for something you need when you need it is not outrageous currently. The property tax spending is much more insidious

Wow! Stepped into a pile of 💩 with that post, didn’t you?

:boom:

How much of an increase are you seeing? Prior posters have explained that the fire assessments are included in your current tax bill. That portion of your tax bill will be dropped and instead be an itemized fee. Let's assume that the stated 1.3% millage rate for fire assessment is correct. Then you look up your assessed value. If you got a notice that the maximum assessment is $320.71, I believe your break-even point is an assessed value of $250,000. If your assessed value is greater, you are happy. If lower, you will pay some amount more.

Never let the facts get in the way ;-)

All of The Villages Fire Assessment fees went up
 

They lost in the general election. They lost in the community vote at Everglades last year. So then the Commissioners created a new governing board and gave them the power to raise the fire assessment. They will also raise the mil value on a part of our taxes. I read the document and it’s very confusing. The new areas all need fire houses. The developer will build them and then lease them back to us.

On a side note, on May 5 I went to the UHF emergency room on 44. I had a septic knee from a cortisone shot I had on May 1st. I waited from 7PM for an ambulance to take me to the Village Hospital. None came. An ambulance came from Orlando to take me to the hospital. I got admitted at 1 am. My nurse was waiting at my room for me.
So when I needed a Village Ambulance for transport to the Villages Hospital, none was available to me! Why?
I was in the Village Hospital 5 days and it was an amazing experience, 4th floor, observation. They were all amazing as was the medical care. I didn’t want to go there, but so glad that I did.
Back to topic. There is a meeting on this in June. If I am better, I will go. Everyone should go and voice their opinion’s. They are also planning to raise the Ammenity fees again.
I love the Villages, but it’s time to stop them from using us as an ATM machine.

Seven minutes for us and that was on a Saturday morning of a holiday weekend.

The fire fee does not cover ambulance service just fire. The ambulance service is stilled paid for from your property taxes. The fire fee raises $23 million for fire protection the budget for the fire department is $53 million.

No, thanks to the genius voters who voted to let Sumter County control the fire stations in the Villages instead of voting for our own district.

I'm in District 13. My Fire Assessment went from $125/yr to $321/yr, a 256% increase. What the....?

But THEORETICALLY, your county tax will go down by the same amount. However, I wouldn't hold my breath. This is the direct result of the voter's decision based on a misinformation campaign last year not to create an independent fire district, so now the county has control of our services, and fire budget.

This is incorrect.

The VPSD request for 2023 to cover both fire and ambulance was $34M. The budget for the VPSDDD for 2024 is not $53M and even if the ambulance was separated, it would not be an additional $20M on top of the VPSDDD.

$53M is close to the $60M request for both VPSD and SCFEMS combined. The VPSDDD budget will only cover services within the Villages area. A separate MSBU is being worked on to cover SCFEMS expenses.
[EDIT: The VPSD proposed budget for this year was $47M. However, only $34M was to come from the county and only $20M was ultimately approved. This $20M is a very close match to the $19M to be collected through the VPSDDD assessment next year.]

"Ambulance service" includes EMS and advanced life support (ALS) transport. I believe the EMS functions can be funded through the dependent district. The only portion of "ambulance service" that cannot be funded through the district is the ALS transport. I believe those expenses will be covered by the transport fee (someone quoted $550). But this would be a great question to take to the VPSDDD meeting or the Sumter County BoCC meeting.

If that’s what it takes for a modern expanded services for emergency response $0.80/per day is the cheapest insurance I’ve ever heard. I will gladly pay it to bring our updated services.

I just received my notice and it didn't double...In our neighborhood, the fire rescue has been in here a lot and they arrive within 5 minutes. It is worth paying a little more to have them show up quickly and maybe save somebody's life....

:bigbow:

I'm with you on this one. Super cheap insurance, especially for a place packed with old folks.

Funny
 

You used the words cheap insurance in the same sentence in Florida. We just got our statement for renewal adjustment. Our rates have more than doubled again! Yes, twice in a row. Progressive is out for us.

That was a big oversight on my part, you're correct it seems insurance is pretty pricy here.

Overall I'd say I'm doing pretty good with State Farm but the cart insurance was a lot higher than I thought it would be, PLUP too. The overall package I get with them seems fair given I live in a place where mutha nature is angry a lot and many of my fellow citizens are very litigious.

Exactly! IF there is no reduction or less than a reduction of 1.3 mills, then we are all paying more $$’s. $195 more at least ($320 - $125 = $195) PLUS the ad velorum portion that ranged from $300 to $400 out of property taxes - that we have been paying all along. If there is No change by the Commissioners, you could say we will be paying upwards of $600 plus for Fire Protection. Or as someone else said, we will be paying $320 plus for Fire Protection and now more $$’s - that we have already been paying - for whatever else they decide to spend that ad volorum on, as it isn’t supposedly going to Fire Protection anymore.

The reality, as far as Cash Flow - at this point anyway - is that we all will be paying at least $195 more - when we stroke our checks in November.

I’m all for good Fire Protection and sure it has to be paid for, but I don’t appreciate the “Dog and Pony Show” and the “Breathing Fire into Numbers” from both the Commission Meetings and the DistrictGov.org. Any “Savings” at this point is a Pipe Dream. We’ll see what the Commissioners do…

We *were* all paying $125 + 1.3mills for fire protection (= $530 in my case)
We *will* be paying $320.71 + 0.03mills estimated for fire protection (= $330 in my case)

We will be paying $0 for fire protection through the county budget. If there is no change by the commissioners I will say that they increased my taxes by at least 1.3mills to pay for even more county services. I don't know yet if I will agree with the services or not, but they will NOT be fire protection services.

Our renewal was $648 in February $41 less than last year. So pretty happy, however we are awaiting the cost for endorsements for the pool we just added, so will definitely see an increase

And a place with very frequent lightning strikes too

Maybe I missed it, any plans to issue a correction to your post?

Thanks for staying focused on the facts.

I was told at a recent "meet your officials" event that the new fire station on Warm Springs was budgeted to cost $8 million for the building, not including equipment. If this is the normal way of doing things, there is a lot of low hanging fruit ripe for saving money.
Where is the committee for identifying cost savings?
Spending that huge amount of money does not make sense. That's enough to easily build 12 luxury houses. That's 24 car garages and room for 12 golf carts. 12 kitchens, 36 bedrooms, 24 showers.
Smarter spending would get a whole lot more for a lot less money.
Why did they decide to build it for that amount???

Just received mine in the mail, ouch. However, I’ll reserve final judgement until I see the tax bill in its entirety and see how things net out? I hate shell games.

Will be impossible to see it "net out" unfortunately.

You would have to look at last year's detailed budget and the new detailed budget to see the expenditure is gone.

:beer3:

How is that a problem?

Looking, Looking and still Looking.

Can't see where I said that is a problem.

:shrug:

Guess I was confused by your use of the word “impossible.”

:BigApplause::highfive: