Vote with hope! Looks like we may have substituted one can of worms with another but the point has been made. Onto the next election. Anyone voted in can be voted out!

You obviously do not know the history on this issue. The old 'Gang of Five' owned by the Developer put the screws to taxpayers a couple years ago with a 25% property tax increase while simultaneously lowering the Developer's impact fees significantly. Thus the POd people threw out the 3 of them up for reelection last November. Now the Developer wants to take local issues away from the oversight of local people and vest it in the hands of the state of FL where they have more control. If their Bill's are passed they would go into effect July 1. This is not a good thing and our Commissioners need to be proactive before then. The Republicans don't like big government interference...until they do!

You obviously do not know the history on this issue. The old 'Gang of Five' owned by the Developer put the screws to taxpayers a couple years ago with a 25% property tax increase while simultaneously lowering the Developer's impact fees significantly. Thus the POd people threw out the 3 of them up for reelection last November. Now the Developer wants to take local issues away from the oversight of local people and vest it in the hands of the state of FL where they have more control. If their Bills are passed they would go into effect July 1. This is not a good thing and our Commissioners need to be proactive before then. The Republicans don't like big government interference...until they do!

That is interesting and sounds accurate.

The Villages is the developers' grand scheme and they should not just avoid keeping things fair after they have made a great deal of money from the venture. Firemen and the like need to be well financed as well as do the roads.

If the impact fee that new buyers would essentially pay is increased, what is the worst that can happen? A reduction in growth! Is that really so bad? Only the Developer is hurt. Impeach Bret Hage!
The fire department wants a blank check to nearly triple rates any time they want. Would you really vote for that?

All firemen and EMTs should be paid a minimum of $30 p/hr, not $11 what a joke First responder training, Hazmat training, Firefighter training, Operating the pumps, Building inspection, and a multitude of other incidents they respond to in the performance of their duties...and they do not get sabbaticals, or great retirement like school teachers, military personal, etc They put their life on the line every day

Forgive me if i don't understand. It is Sumter County who wants to raise the Fire Impact Fee. The Villages has their own Fire Department which seems large enough to handle The Villages property and residents. So why does Sumter County need such a large increase?

Wages do not raise when you are retired or on social security.
Also, we are charged for rescue privately, ambulance is not covered here as it has been in every other city/ state I have ever lived. There is no reason other then to put more coins in the developers pocket at the expense of those who moved here because the promises made back in the 90's.

Are you saying the Developer should be paying for ambulance service?:confused:

What are the documented promises you mention.

What promises. You have them in writing don't you? Records??

big gov't
 

In this case the big gov't interference started with the new bills that are taking away power from the locals and giving it to big gov't (the State) so the problem IS the big gov't - transferring power from local to State! This issue is consistent with conservatives not liking big government.

If Desantis is a proponent of this bill, whether it passes or not, why would you continue to support him?

SAVE THIS POST:

The bill will not pass.




:cryin2:

Because growth is what has kept your taxes so low.

Anyone who does not like growth is living in the wrong area.

It's the ideal time to ram through any legislation, rules, raises, and changes that may not be in the best interest of the residents of the community.... Covid has not disappeared and will keep many in this age group away; does anyone think "they" don't know this ? It's like when you want to change something, tear down a building, or put up a permanent wall or block something off, when do you do this ? Well of course you start it about 2 to 3 a.m. when most are fast asleep, less to deal with. Same with virus, best time to hold "public" meetings of any kind, low attendance assured. Sign of the times.

Nope. The place will be packed.

color of law ? Anyone?

the drones will be flying

Every Florida Taxpayer Will Pay Higher Taxes
 

What many on this thread fail to understand is that if Florida HB 337 and S 750 are enacted, EVERY Florida property taxpayer will be paying higher taxes whenever new development is built in their county and the costs of that development are greater than the impact fees currently being charged in that county. Since the developer of The Villages wishes to keep their impact fee payments as favorable as they have been, they are willing to take the impact fee decisions by the other 66 counties in Florida out of the hands of those county governments. I wonder if the other 66 counties are in favor of giving up this responsibility? If you have friends or relatives in another county, you might want to make them aware of this slight of hand.

With every contractor that currently sub-contracts for the Villages and wants to continue to be on the list for future work.

Some of the surrounding communities are gathering signatures on a petition to present. All petitions must be completed and submitted 20 days prior to the meeting.

Remember that every construction worker who appears at that meeting is being paid time and a half to show up.

Prove it. Or stay silent.

:bigbow:

Unless their employer doesn't understand the law, he will be paying them if he asked them to show up. Can I prove that the employer is obeying the law? Of course not, but it is highly likely.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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?

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?

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".

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 ;-)