[Pairadocs]

Originally Posted by golf2140

I just opened my mail and received a notice that they also was to raise the Fire Protection fee from $125.00 to $360.00 what else are the going to raise?

Same here, who gets up the nerve to make a raise of 300% ? ? This is nonsense, something else has to be going on here ???

[Pairadocs]

Originally Posted by lpkruege1

Ok, so unless I'm missing something here. There are 74,242 homes in Sumter co. as of July 2019. There were 1609 businesses that were employer establishments. There was a total of 7,013 non employee businesses. Let's just look at home max tax increases. I see this as a Max tax increase of 288%. 74,242 homes X $235 each home. =$17,464,870. That's without assessments on the businesses. So sorry for asking but What the Heck? Where does the developer or the county pay for any of the new fire stations or EMTs? 25% here, 288% there? It seems to me we paid for our fire stations and EMTs already in our bond. What am I missing? Even at $50,000 wage for firemen that's 349 new firemen. Or that's 26 new fire trucks at $660,000 per truck. Or 17 new fire stations at a million dollars each. So What are they asking for here? I think they need to do some explaining.

Right, there is a lot of explaining that needs to be done !

[shirleyjerez]

What difference does it make . They make promises and don’t stick by it. Isn’t that politician ??!

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by shirleyjerez

What difference does it make . They make promises and don’t stick by it. Isn’t that politician ??!

Yes, but so many voters fell for it (without thinking if a 25% increase could be reversed) and now reality is setting in.

[newgirl]

Many can not afford this, I don't understand how this can be justified? And what can we the people do to stop this?

[birdiebill]

Originally Posted by newgirl

Many can not afford this, I don't understand how this can be justified? And what can we the people do to stop this?

The commissioners may have to make a difficult choice IF the reason for the increase is that the cost of providing excellent fire protection coverage has risen above the level of the current fire protection fee assessment limit. Wages, insurance, equipment, training, maintenance, supplies, utility costs may have risen to where the current assessment does not cover those costs for the Fire Department. Therefore their choice is to either raise the assessment fee to continue excellent fire protection coverage, or to reduce fire protection coverage by eliminating fire department personnel, equipment, fire stations, EMT response, etc. There has not been an increase in the current fire protection assessment fee in years. Tough choice.

We currently pay home owners insurance premiums partially based on the excellent coverage score for fire protection in The Village/Sumter County. We are rated category 2 which is the second highest possible rating. If the category slips below 2, we will pay even higher home owner premiums. So we are going to pay one way or another.

[Aloha1]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

B.S., they are doing the right thing as the rules of the game were suddenly changed and a gun was put to their head to make a decision under a very tight time line. I applaud them for performing their fiduciary responsibilities by quickly reacting and moving to make a decision before their hands potentially get tied behind their backs.

I disagree. They adopted a position that they would do due diligence and take the issue off the table in July. Then, without doing said due diligence, they decided they must "stick it" to TV by going ahead with their tax increase on June 30th. There have been plenty of discussions in other threads about the false premise these 3 are operating from. Fiduciary Responsibility is a legal term. It requires those in power to be mindful and to work in the best interests of the taxpayers. There are more taxpayers in Sumter County not in TV than in TV. Yet all these 3 seem to care about is the heck with anybody but us in TV. Total negligence.

[Aloha1]

Originally Posted by GolfGirl122

This is hardly a matter for a lawsuit against the Commissioners - however, think about it, the Commissioners want to increase the Impact fee for new construction and the developer and friends fight back. They even go so far as to get legislation passed to cap their potential expense. Then the Commissioners send out a notice to residents that (due to future construction) the Fire District needs money to keep up with all the new construction. What??? How about if we all just give the developer one of our credit cards and they can use it to continue all this building. Thank you to the Commissioners who are trying to expose the machine at work.

You contradict yourself.

[Aloha1]

As a sage once said: "Never underestimate the ignorance of the American electorate."

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Aloha1

I disagree. They adopted a position that they would do due diligence and take the issue off the table in July. Then, without doing said due diligence, they decided they must "stick it" to TV by going ahead with their tax increase on June 30th. There have been plenty of discussions in other threads about the false premise these 3 are operating from. Fiduciary Responsibility is a legal term. It requires those in power to be mindful and to work in the best interests of the taxpayers. There are more taxpayers in Sumter County not in TV than in TV. Yet all these 3 seem to care about is the heck with anybody but us in TV. Total negligence.

The Commissioners were going about their day and suddenly out of the blue decided to change things? Are you honestly contending that nothing happened to affect their decision? Are you accusing them of improperly bringing a motion back for consideration?

"more taxpayers in Sumter County non in TV than in TV"? I seriously doubt that.

EDIT: It looks like it is close. Sumter County = 132,000. The Villages = 80,000. Approximately 15% outside Sumter County -> 68,000 in Sumter County. So pretty close to 50/50 split.

"the heck with anybody but us in TV" Yeah, I really hate it when people care about my needs, really ticks me off!

[village dreamer]

Originally Posted by rmd2

That is one of the biggest parking lots in TV.

remember last time all the t and d trucks, they will bring in every truck they can and block us out

[bpascani]

This is more than doubled, which is absurd!!

[perrjojo]

I’m confused. Some post are referencing impact fees and others are referring to the ad valorem tax. It’s apples and ranges

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by Aloha1

I disagree. They adopted a position that they would do due diligence and take the issue off the table in July. Then, without doing said due diligence, they decided they must "stick it" to TV by going ahead with their tax increase on June 30th. There have been plenty of discussions in other threads about the false premise these 3 are operating from. Fiduciary Responsibility is a legal term. It requires those in power to be mindful and to work in the best interests of the taxpayers. There are more taxpayers in Sumter County not in TV than in TV. Yet all these 3 seem to care about is the heck with anybody but us in TV. Total negligence.

One of the new commissioners (who represents the swing vote) tried to buy time to explore adequate due diligence, unfortunately the time he tried to buy has been threatened to be taken away. As a result, the new commissioners were forced into having to expedite the time line, and now are being falsely accused of changing their minds. They are performing their fiduciary responsible to the residential taxpayers of Sumter County by expediting the process before the rules of the game very well might be changed.

If anyone should be called out, it is not the three new Commissioners, it is those who try to change the rules if they don’t like the way the game is playing out.

[J1ceasar]

It's interesting to me at any politician even talks to a developer for negotiations. He's up to the politician to look at the facts understand what voters elected them to do and then go ahead and do it to the best of their ability. It seems easy enough to me to raise the infrastructure taxes to a fair reasonable amount similar to the counties around as far as competition for building and capital monies