Originally Posted by Goldwingnut (Post 1674796)

The transparency is there, under Florida Law what is commonly know as the Sunshine Law all public business is open to the public including all meetings and documents. Unfortunately few people take the time to get involved.

As a District Supervisor for the last 5 years I have been involved in the budgets for CDD-10 and the Project Wide Fund for 5 time over now. In that time there are normally 4 meetings/workshops dedicated each year for each budget. This makes about 40 +/- budget meetings that were open to the public that I was in attendance and during that time the number of people interested in the budget that showed up can be counted on one hand and the number of questions, inquiries, and complaints at these meetings by the public was ZERO!

The only meeting I've seen that anyone had anything to say about budgets was when the AAC & PWAC decided to recommend removal of the deferral cap on the Amenity Fee. What was apparent with the vast majority of the comments was that people didn't read their deed restrictions, believed the hype of realtors who will do or say anything to sell a house, didn't bother to read the information that was put out to the public, and/or have forgotten how the real world works since they have retired. The Supervisors and District Staff involved in the process don't have these luxuries and have to do their homework to make a decision that is best for the long term of the community.

The county meetings have been no different. I've been to about a dozen so far and the room is normally vacant of residents and citizens. Unless there is a pet project that someone has an interest in, people simply don't show up and don't bother to find out the agenda of what is happening. This leaves the Commissioners in a vacuum to make the decisions based on their own best judgement.

The first step to transparency is to be looking, otherwise all the transparency in the world is useless. As much a failure of the County Commissioners to plan ahead and prevent this budget crisis, it is also a failure of us as residents and taxpayers to provide them with our oversight, input, and feedback on their conduct of the everyday business of the county.

Originally Posted by Jazuela (Post 1674745)

They "fiscally responsibled" themselves into debt. By not spending when they should have, in order to boast about how much they were saving for the constituents, the infrastructure and other services were neglected. Now, instead of maintenance, they need repairs. Someone has to pay for it, since no one paid for the maintenance.

You would've had to pay all along, if they were being TRULY "fiscally responsible." You just would've paid it gradually.

Being "fiscally responsible" doesn't mean cutting corners and not spending money. It means spending it efficiently on things that need spending on, to prevent having to spend even more on those things when something goes wrong.

That ALSO means including into a budget a significant buffer of funds, which apparently they didn't do. My town up north is fiscally responsible. Our taxes are high, but we have top-notch services. Our roads are taken care of; this year every major road in the town is being repaved. We have snow removal services and own all the machinery needed and the crew is all trained. We have our own EMS system. We have our own town police and 911 dispatch and multiple fire department houses. We have some of the best schools in the state, which are some of the best schools in the country.

We have enough funding to handle at least the immediate recovery of disaster mitigation; clearing roads, moving trees, getting live wires off the roadways, redirecting traffic around floods, etc.

Our taxes also cover the cost of weekly trash pickup, bi-weekly recycling pickup, yard waste pickup, and twice yearly bulk pickup. And we have our own town dump, where we have solar panels built on the side of the "hill" and that solar energy from that one location powers every single official town building in the town.

We also have comprehensive senior services, including low-income senior housing partially funded by the state, partially by the fed, and partially funded by the town. We have a senior community center which, while nothing compared to the Villages, is pretty significant for our low-volume senior population. We have a couple of public parks that are maintained in part by the town, with state and federal fund assistance.

THIS is "fiscal responsibility." Making sure the constituents have what they need to live safe, comfortable lives and their kids offered excellent educational backgrounds from which they can thrive in adulthood.

We pay for it. That is OUR responsibility to the town.

I'm not suggesting that you should expect to pay as much as we do for our services in our town.

I'm suggesting, however, that what you thought you would automatically be getting, you haven't been paying for. And now it's time to pay for it, because the town has to play catch-up with costs vs. services.

Originally Posted by bob47 (Post 1674825)

I think you've hit the nail on the head. The Sumter county commissioners have NOT been fiscally responsible in planning for the future and now have to play catch up. Is it a surprise that large portions of Buena Vista and Morse, for example, need repaving?

And the other significant part of the decision: whether to have the developer and future residents pay a significant portion of the cost of new infrastructure via impact fees, or to have the existing residents pay for new infrastructure required by the developer's plans.

Originally Posted by Goldwingnut (Post 1674703)

And what services do you propose cutting? If the revenue doesn't match the expenses either the revenue has to go up or the expenses have to go down. You are apposed to the proposed increases to fund the current spending plan so what austerity measures are proposed?

Don't use the favorite of many in Washington of raising taxes on businesses, businesses don't pay taxes, they collect them and pass the money on to the government. Everything we buy or do with our money goes to a business, when you add an extra layer or two on to the tax/revenue stream it always costs more than without the middleman. The bottom line is we, the consumer/taxpayer, end up paying more.

The current 24% is the maximum and does not reflect all the budgetary numbers to determine the final amount. It will be less.

The budget proposed reflect 14 years of public officials patting themselves on the back for no tax increases, now it comes back to haunt them. It also reflects 14 years of public disinterest, of not getting involved, of citizens not carrying out their own basic civic responsibilities. Doubt my words, check the normally monthly attendance of the county board meetings or CDD meeting. Thousands of residents and hardly a one makes the time to get involved. We are all to blame for the pending tax increase. It's time to make some hard decisions.

Originally Posted by Goldwingnut (Post 1674796)

The transparency is there, under Florida Law what is commonly know as the Sunshine Law all public business is open to the public including all meetings and documents. Unfortunately few people take the time to get involved.

As a District Supervisor for the last 5 years I have been involved in the budgets for CDD-10 and the Project Wide Fund for 5 time over now. In that time there are normally 4 meetings/workshops dedicated each year for each budget. This makes about 40 +/- budget meetings that were open to the public that I was in attendance and during that time the number of people interested in the budget that showed up can be counted on one hand and the number of questions, inquiries, and complaints at these meetings by the public was ZERO!

The only meeting I've seen that anyone had anything to say about budgets was when the AAC & PWAC decided to recommend removal of the deferral cap on the Amenity Fee. What was apparent with the vast majority of the comments was that people didn't read their deed restrictions, believed the hype of realtors who will do or say anything to sell a house, didn't bother to read the information that was put out to the public, and/or have forgotten how the real world works since they have retired. The Supervisors and District Staff involved in the process don't have these luxuries and have to do their homework to make a decision that is best for the long term of the community.

The county meetings have been no different. I've been to about a dozen so far and the room is normally vacant of residents and citizens. Unless there is a pet project that someone has an interest in, people simply don't show up and don't bother to find out the agenda of what is happening. This leaves the Commissioners in a vacuum to make the decisions based on their own best judgement.

The first step to transparency is to be looking, otherwise all the transparency in the world is useless. As much a failure of the County Commissioners to plan ahead and prevent this budget crisis, it is also a failure of us as residents and taxpayers to provide them with our oversight, input, and feedback on their conduct of the everyday business of the county.