[JoMar]

Originally Posted by crash

Raising the impact fee on the developer to the same level as any other builder is not a tax but a fee on the developer that he can pass on to new home buyers. The roads built to support the new development should be paid by people buying new homes not the entire county.

I was under the impression that the Developer paid for all the new roads and the County paid for upgrading existing roads. My experience is that is the way it usually works and I have lived in areas where development took place and the State and County didn't have the money to upgrade the existing roads to support the development so they left them alone, to the point that some become roads to nowhere. Lots of traffic backups to the point of gridlock and an increase in accidents. I'm thankful that the County and State have the resources to upgrade and take care of existing roads.

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by crash

Raising the impact fee on the developer to the same level as any other builder is not a tax but a fee on the developer that he can pass on to new home buyers. The roads built to support the new development should be paid by people buying new homes not the entire county.

The developer (assuming you mean The Villages) pays the same fee as other +55 community builders.

[Advogado]

The original post contains absolute, misleading nonsense about impact fees and the feasibility of rolling back the 25% tax increase.

The truth is that the Developer's puppets on the County Commission raised our county tax a massive 25% to pay for the massive county-infrastructure expansion necessitated by the Developer's massive expansion of The Villages, which massive expansion was facilitated by the puppets. The puppets should have paid for the infrastructure by increasing the Developer's sweetheart impact fee. By increasing the Developer's sweetheart impact fee to a reasonable level, the massive tax hike can be rolled back by NEW County Commissioners. IF market conditions allow the Developer to pass some, or all, of a reasonable impact fee on to new home buyers, fine. They and the Developer should be paying for the new infrastructure, not the current residents of Sumter County.

As it is, the combination of the sweetheart impact fee for the Developer and the massive tax increase for us is, in essence, giving the Developer hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Every year, when you pay your County tax, you are really writing a check to the Developer for the amount of your tax increase. It is time to put an end to the Developer's control of the County Commission.

But that cannot be easily done. The Developer is not going to give up his lucrative relationship with the County Commission without a fight. By using suppliers and associates as donors to avoid contribution limits, the Developer has funneled a couple hundred thousand dollars to his puppets running in the August 18 Republican primary. He and his puppets have even fielded fake candidates (Prince and Wahl) to disenfranchise 45,000 voters. Clean up the Sumter County Commission by voting out the incumbents in that primary.

[Advogado]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

The developer (assuming you mean The Villages) pays the same fee as other +55 community builders.

Who are the other +55 community builders in Sumter County? Get real. The impact fee was set at a sweetheart level for the Developer by his puppets on the County Commission.