[Advogado]

The latest on the Developer's maneuvering in Tallahassee to maintain his sweetheart impact fee, at our expense, can be found by clicking here: Villages employee/lawmaker wants to help his employer - Orlando Sentinel

Hopefully, the voters of Sumter County will remember this next year and vote out, in the Republican primary: State Representative Hage, County Commissioner Gilpin, and Couny Commissioner Breeden. But memories are short, and the Developer has a lot of money to spend to keep his guys in office.

Commissioners Estep, Miller, and Search need to act quickly. smartly, and decisively on impact fees.

[dewilson58]

The OS article is wrong.
The numbers presented assume all of the sixty thousand planned homes.
Too late, thousands have already been built, thousands have been platted.

[Advogado]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

The OS article is wrong.
The numbers presented assume all of the sixty thousand planned homes.
Too late, thousands have already been built, thousands have been platted.

I would argue that the numbers are too low. They ignore both potential impact-fee revenues from the Developer's commercial construction and impact-fees on infrastructure in addition to roads.

But when you quibble about the numbers, which are illustrative only, you overlook the substance of the article, which is the smell that underlies the proposed legislation and Hage's ties to the Developer. The article is definitely not, as you put it, "WRONG", and to so characterize it is silly.

BTW, I am curious; do you or do you not favor increasing the Developer's sweetheart impact fee and correspondingly rolling back our 25% property-tax hike? You have commented countless times (generally with some nitpicking comment like your one here) on this subject. However, unless i missed it, you have never set clearly forth your position on the real issue.

[dewilson58]

Of course you would argue.
The article is just discussing TV's fees and they are wrong, so the article is wrong.


I have posted my position a number of time, most of the time it's deleted with the sweeping cleaning of the site managers.


My position:
I don't care if the impact fee discount is eliminated and TV fee goes to +$2500.
TV does not care if the fee is increased to the non-discounted level.
It is no money out of TV's pocket, they will just increase the prices.
This increase will result in very little of the 25% increase being reversed.


Did I like the 25% increase, of course not.
Was it unexpected, NOPE.
+10 year of no increases, taxes are going up and they are going up big.


The 25% increase equated to 1% to 2% of disposable income.
It's all proportional to house values, income level, etc.
What was the published example???.........$300,000 house amount to just over $1/day.


I jump into the discussions when I see false information, wrong data and general BS.
I planned my retirement well and this 25% was not even a speed bump.
I extremely happy with The Villages and the Lifestyle they have created.
If my house would have cost $2500 more, if the monthly fees increase by $40 or if my property taxes go up ~$1/day (or proportionately)........It's worth it!!


I enjoy the clueless posters (& maybe some of the voters) who think the 25% will be reversed by increasing impact fees on TV South of 44. It ain't going to happen for so many reasons. There might be a few percentage reduction, but the 25% will not be reversed.


Remember the Commissioners' Mission Statement:
Our mission is to provide the most efficient, effective, and responsive government that achieves economic growth, quality customer service, and a safe community for our citizens.


Their primary focus is growth.

Sometimes there is a cost to the citizens



There are roads all over the county I will never drive on, but I helped pay for them.
The same is true about my Federal Taxes and the Interstate Road system.


Good Luck with your battle.

[twoplanekid]

An interesting read from the Daily Sun in May of 2006 talking about "Sumter considers county change"

The Villages Daily Sun

It may take a while to load.

[wamley]

If it's a proposal then supply the chart that proposes the months and years the tax will gradiually end up at $360.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by Robbie0723

Because growth is what has kept your taxes so low.

Yet they claim the need for infrastructure necessitated by growth is why existing residents property taxes were jacked up by 25%. Reconcile that?

[Northwoods]

Originally Posted by Advogado

The Developer pays a fire impact fee of 0%. What a surprise that the residents have to pick up the tab for the increased fire stations and equipment necessary as a result of the Developer's massive expansion of The Villages. Yet we still have a small number of hard-core Developer-philes posting, on this website, a defense of the Developer's sweetheart deal on impact fees.

It’s my understanding that the Developer has built every fire station, and then turns it over (donates it) to The villages at no charge.
This is according to Goldwingnut... the all-knowing person on this blog.

[Lonnieme2]

This fire fee, is it per month or per year?

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Northwoods

It’s my understanding that the Developer has built every fire station, and then turns it over (donates it) to The villages at no charge.
This is according to Goldwingnut... the all-knowing person on this blog.

Not sure if it is all the fire stations but it has been true to all the stations south of 466a.

[J1ceasar]

Blame the elected politicians you've had over the last 10 years because they didn't have the guts to have a 3% raise every year which would have made things much more palatable. All you folks seem to forget that the workers I firemen ambulance guys etc etc have to get a raise once in awhile also, buildings get old and need to be maintained old fire trucks need to be sold and bought new. If you would look at the rateables you would see that they have gone up every single year and that the fire tax should be tied as well to the total rate of amount as far as an increase in total revenues gotten

[Jerseygirl08]

Originally Posted by elevatorman

The base rate for a firefighter is $11.35 / hour to start. That is roughly $4.00 above todays minimum wage. 60% of Florida voters voted to raise the minimum wage in Florida to $15.00. If a firefighter is to stay at the same $4.00 above rate an increase in Fire Protection Fees will be needed. I don't want a firefighter to be paid minimum wage.

I would hope the firefighters/EMS staff persons would get an increase in their paychecks. That's just ridiculous that their pay is so low. Can that be fact checked?

[Jerseygirl08]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

Correct.
It's just increasing the Max Available.
When the fee goes to the max some day, it's $1 per day per house.
A lot of bad odor rising off of stale guacamole.

May be nothing to you Wilson, but to a lot of people, $30 a month here, $10 there, another $25 over here, ........... that makes it tough for them. Maybe you have a big fat pension or other steady income and sit pretty well in TV, some others cannot afford it. Also, the point, other than the money, has been totally lost here. It's the principal of the Developer obviously turning his back on the people who made him rich. And why do you keep talking about avocado's?

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl08

May be nothing to you Wilson, but to a lot of people, $30 a month here, $10 there, another $25 over here, ........... that makes it tough for them.

The cap is rising, not the actual assessment.
(the assessment will increase some day)

Current cap has been in place for over 12 years.


Provide support for your "a lot of people".

[tuccillo]

It is a double pun and pretty clever. He is referring to the poster "Avogadro" (the name of the Italian scientist primarily know for Avogadro's number (the number of atoms in a "mole")). His name sort of sounds like avocado, the primary ingredient in guaca"mole". You can groan now ;-)

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl08

And why do you keep talking about avocado's?