[birdiebill]

Sumter County consists of more than just The Villages, even though TV has the largest population in the county. Other communities in the county include Wildwood, Lake Panasoffkee, Sumterville, Bushnell, Center Hill, Coleman, and Webster. While these are small in population, the people that live in these communities also use the network roads to travel to work, to shop, to medical appointments, etc. These county network roads are not improved just to make it easier for Villagers to get to and between different Villages.

[algi45]

Then you shouldn't come to the Sharon , Savannah Center etc. since you never paid for any of these roads.

[kappy]

Besides the fact that someone is reaching into your pockets for 94.5 cents per day, there is a principle involved here. The proper action that the Commissioners should have taken in 2019 was to not give the developer a 60% reduction in the impact fees and not raised the taxes on all the existing homeowners who have already paid their impact fees when their homes were built. That’s double taxation. It’s now time to right the wrong done in 2019.

[Number 10 GI]

Businesses don't pay taxes. The purchasers of those business' products/services pay the taxes. A business has to make a certain level of profit in order to keep the doors open and to turn a profit for investors. If increased taxes cut into the needed profit then the business will increase the cost of their product/service and pass on that extra cost onto the consumer. We the consumer will pay for the increased taxes. So simple that a simple minded caveman can understand it, hopefully.

[JoMar]

I have written our Commissioners stating my opposition to impact fees as proposed.

[rogerk]

This message is misleading on several points. For one thing property tax is NOT indexed to CPI. In fact, property taxes were reduced for 10 consecutive years and they have been decreased again this past year.

Impact fees are not only applied to residential property, by state law, they must be applied to ALL property being developed. The biggest negative impact will be on commercial property development. This not only applies to businesses that service Village residents, it applies to all business locating in Sumter County. Why should a manufacturering or distribution company, for example, locate in Sumter County and pay higher impact fees for the privilege. Surounding counties have learned the hard way that high impact fees discourage companies from building in their county. We want businesses to locate in Sumter County. The more businesses there are in Sumter County paying property taxes, the less individual homeowners have to pay to run the county.

Ultimately the goal should be that factories and wharehouses and distribution businesses, etc., not homeowners, should be contributing a larger share of the total costs of running the county. That will provide real long term relief from higher property taxes.

Think and understand the REAL issue and don't be fooled by slogans and one-sided rhetoric.

Originally Posted by kappy

How would you like to save $348 or more every year? Silly question; we all would. It’s simple. That $348 is the amount of tax that the County imposed on your home by the 2019 25% tax increase if your home had a taxable value of $255,700. Of course, that amount will increase or decrease based upon whether the taxable value was more or less than the $255,700 value used in The Villages Daily Sun article on January 13, 2021. Actually that tax payment would increase annually by 3% or the CPI, whichever is lower. If the CPI averaged only 1.5% every year, after 10 years, you would be paying almost $400. And the reason for these payments is the unfair 25% tax increase imposed on all Sumter County homeowners in 2019 due to The Villages expansion below Rt. 44.

The County Commissioners chose to impose that enormous tax increase instead of raising the Sumter County impact fees to the 100% rate from the current 40% rate. The increased costs associated with any new development should be borne by the people who are getting the benefits of that new development. That is, the new homeowners, not homeowners who have already paid for the roads that they are using. Taxes are paid annually; impact fees are paid only once, at the time that each new home is built. Increasing the impact fee to the 100% rate would only add $1458 to each new home built in The Villages That amount will not stop people from buying homes in The Villages.

How do we accomplish this annual tax savings? Just go to the Sumter County website and call or email the Commissioners and let them know that you want them to roll back the 25% tax increase and raise the impact fees to the 100% rate. After all, the road costs generated by the new development below Rt. 44 should be paid for by the beneficiaries of that expansion.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Garywt

So what would have been the result is the county had raised taxes every year up to last year instead or holding them for 10 or so years, would have cost even more. Our taxes did not go up 25% in Marion County but I did follow this last year.

Maybe Marion county already has the highest taxes in area? I think I pay more in school tax than Sumter county residents pays for all taxes? You can’t have all that construction and still pay the lowest taxes in area?

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by JoMar

I have written our Commissioners stating my opposition to impact fees as proposed.

Is there a proposal???
(i thought no action was taken)

[NavyNJ]

Somebody needs to buy a punctuation mark!! LoL!!

[JoMar]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

Is there a proposal???
(i thought no action was taken)

Nope, but I went on record I oppose it. The triade ran on the issue of higher impact fees and rollback of taxes and I assume that will be their position so wanted them to know I oppose anything that will slow growth and attract new business. I have been down that road to many times before (on both sides, looking where to expand our business and the impact to my community when business expenses were raised). As stated earlier in this thread if a business decides to move here their expenses will be passed on the customers if they can make a profit. If it's iffy, they will locate at more friendly location. They will make the decisions in the best interest of the business and State and County government can make that attractive or not. Just stated my view when I wrote them.

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by JoMar

Nope, but I went on record I oppose it. The triade ran on the issue of higher impact fees and rollback of taxes and I assume that will be their position so wanted them to know I oppose anything that will slow growth and attract new business. I have been down that road to many times before (on both sides, looking where to expand our business and the impact to my community when business expenses were raised). As stated earlier in this thread if a business decides to move here their expenses will be passed on the customers if they can make a profit. If it's iffy, they will locate at more friendly location. They will make the decisions in the best interest of the business and State and County government can make that attractive or not. Just stated my view when I wrote them.

Roger
Saw "as proposed" and thought there was proposed impact fees.

[kappy]

Every year the taxable value of your property increases by 3% or the CPI, whichever is lower. Just look at your last few tax bills and you’ll see the increase. The increase from 2019 to 2020 on my bill was 2.95% and the increase from 2018 to 2019 was 2.45%. To learn more about this annual increase, look up Florida’s “Save Our Homes” Benefit ..
In 2020 and for 14 years prior to 2019, Sumter County taxpayers had a reduction in their taxes but not due to anything that the Commissioners did. It was simply due to all the additional revenues collected each year because of all the new homeowners in The Villages. That’s just common sense. And with all the new homeowners coming into Sumter County, we had more and more businesses flock to the County simply due to the fact that we had all those new homeowners. Businesses want to be where the people are and The Villages will continue to be the #1 fastest growing adult community even if each new homeowner has to pay an additional $1500 due to the increase in the impact fee. Yes, that is all that the impact fee will be for each new home sold by the developer.