[charlie1]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

I'd like to know more about that campground. Looking at one of the RV parks near here, they were assessed on about 20% of their area. Don't know if that was some equation for RV parks or if they have only developed 20% of their land for use in the business.

In any case, to get an assessment of $490,000 (I saw that number somewhere) at $0.53/sq ft that works out to be 925,000sq ft. If that was an RV park and assessed on only 20% of the land then that would be a 100acre RV park. $490,000 is a lot of money but a 100acre (4.3M sq ft) business is a fairly large business.

It bothers me that (IF I AM CORRECT) Grand Traverse plaza pays exactly the same $124 that I do. This 100acre RV park would also pay $124 (or possibly $248 if it is actually two parks). The residential properties appear to be subsidizing the commercial properties.

But, I also recognize that $0.539/sq ft is a very large number. At $323.64 a 2,000sq ft home would pay about $0.16/sq ft. Perhaps the proposal shifted the pendulum too far to the other side.

I agree! I also thought they went too high. The current system is unfair to the homeowners and I know the commissioners would like to correct this but there proposal was not thoroughly thought thru and was just too large of a leap!

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Babubhat

Remember who approved this and boot them. Cut the landscaping, it’s out of control.

Managers look for cost savings everyday. ABC, always be cutting

What does landscaping have to do with county taxes?

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

The fire department issue.

I think it started with the vote last November. I have read many comments on the board and I have spoken to many of my neighbors. No one seems to understand the impact of passing the referendum last year or the impact of not passing it.

I don't believe anyone has explained why the fire fighting costs are going up so dramatically. The Sumter County Fire Chief claims that failure to pass the $200 increase will cause a $12 million shortfall in his $24 million budget and that he will have to lay off 30 fireman. Was there no shortfall last year? What was the budget last year? The Villages Public Safety Department will lose 57 new positions and will have to disband the hazardous materials team and his budget will be cut from $34.5 million to $20 million.

- The SCFEMS budget for last year was about $19M and this year they asked for $28M.
- The new assessment and structure would bring in $35M but now, changing it back to the old amount and old structure, it will only bring in about $10M
- The $25M difference will likely be split evenly between the two departments, $12.5M each.
- Taking $12.5M from the SCFEMS budget will leave $15.5M which is about $3.5M LESS than last year.
- Announcing layoffs may only be an attempt to frighten the citizens but with expenses going up and income going down by $3.5M, the SCFEMS has to do something.

The VPSD will lose the same $12.5M but because their budget had a larger increase this year, even losing that amount they will have a little more than last year. Perhaps their proposed increase was to cover the hiring of additional staff which will not happen now.

It was the SCFEMS chief who mentioned the HazMat team.

If the referendum had passed last November, would the budgets have then been balanced without the $200 increase? If so, where would the money have come from?

If the IFD referendum has passed we would not have received notice about the $323.64 and the VPSD would not be involved with this. The IFD referendum locked in our fee at $124 and funded the VPSD out of the IFD. The VPSD would not have been part of the BoCC budget at all.

Now, SCFEMS would have been greatly affected but that's a larger discussion with more math.

The latest census figures for Sumter County show a population of about 135,000.

Did anyone on the board work as a fireman or on their city's budget committee? What is the average cost of a fire department in a town of 135,000?

That I do not know.

[Normal]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

- The SCFEMS budget for last year was about $19M and this year they asked for $28M.
- The new assessment and structure would bring in $35M but now, changing it back to the old amount and old structure, it will only bring in about $10M
- The $25M difference will likely be split evenly between the two departments, $12.5M each.
- Taking $12.5M from the SCFEMS budget will leave $15.5M which is about $3.5M LESS than last year.
- Announcing layoffs may only be an attempt to frighten the citizens but with expenses going up and income going down by $3.5M, the SCFEMS has to do something.

The VPSD will lose the same $12.5M but because their budget had a larger increase this year, even losing that amount they will have a little more than last year. Perhaps their proposed increase was to cover the hiring of additional staff which will not happen now.

It was the SCFEMS chief who mentioned the HazMat team.


If the IFD referendum has passed we would not have received notice about the $323.64 and the VPSD would not be involved with this. The IFD referendum locked in our fee at $124 and funded the VPSD out of the IFD. The VPSD would not have been part of the BoCC budget at all.

Now, SCFEMS would have been greatly affected but that's a larger discussion with more math.


That I do not know.

I imagine there is a mix of some volunteer fire stations and some regular city fire stations in that demographic. The obvious skew for the Villages is age vs volunteerism. A “healthy candidate” may not be dependable enough to meet physical qualifications for a satisfactory length of time. Therefore a volunteer fire department is most certainly out of the question if anything just on the factor of reliability of the required physical ability.

[Kenswing]

Is everyone forgetting that VPSD added 12 new ambulances and the county is adding a similar number? This was in response to the citizen’s dissatisfaction with the private ambulance company’s response time. Our fire departments gave us what we demanded. Did you think that all of that new equipment and the crews to man it was going to be free? Now since we didn’t approve the IFD don’t be surprised if they roll both departments under the control of the county. Would that be a bad thing? Only time will tell.

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

- The SCFEMS budget for last year was about $19M and this year they asked for $28M.
- The new assessment and structure would bring in $35M but now, changing it back to the old amount and old structure, it will only bring in about $10M.

If the budget was $19 million last year and we change it back to the old amount and old structure, why do we only bring in $10 million?? Where did the extra $9 million go?

[LuvtheVillages]

Originally Posted by kansasr

Looking at the TRIM notice for the Lofts at Brownwood, their fire assessment would go from $124 to $84,146.

So $84,146 divided by $323 .50 is 260 apartments. How many units are in The Lofts?

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

If the budget was $19 million last year and we change it back to the old amount and old structure, why do we only bring in $10 million?? Where did the extra $9 million go?

The SCFD budget last year was $19M. It was funded by about $4.5M from the fire assessment plus $14.5M from property taxes.

The $124 assessment brought in a little over $9M. With more homes built since last July, the $124 assessment might bring in $10M this year.

The $28M request this year would have been made up of $17.5M from the $323 fee plus $10.5M from property taxes. Now that the fee will be only $124 and bring in only $10M the SCFEMS will receive $15.5M which is $3.5M less than last year.

This is all dependent on the BoCC doing nothing to correct the situation. It is highly likely that they will find some way to fund SCFEMS to at least the same level as last year.

[Altavia]

Maybe I'm confused, fire departments need to be funded one way or another.

A few hundred people unwilling to pay an extra dollar a day to support our fire department, show up to a meeting and the BOCC overrules the voters without an alternate solution?

[Happydaz]

Originally Posted by Altavia

Maybe I'm confused, fire departments need to be funded one way or another.

A few hundred people unwilling to pay an extra dollar a day to support our fire department, show up to a meeting and the BOCC overrules the voters without an alternate solution?

You bring up a good point. Homeowners were to see the fire assessment jump from $124 to $324. This was not really that large an increase in our overall county taxes as we have a reduction this upcoming year in our regular county taxes on our homes. People were panicked into showing up at the meeting worrying about the fire fee increase. The fact was that a great deal of the money was coming from the commercial side. That is why we had editorials and news articles in The Daily Sun.

[Normal]

The whole funding system needs redone. Sumter county only has one major metro player, Wildwood. Wildwood provides police services in the southern end of the Villages, but also scoops up tax dollars for it. They could or should provide all fire services for south of 44. The county shouldn’t be the main player in any of that area.

This leaves the central and northern Villages to figure out something. They should still be getting services from the county. The sheriff should be supplying law enforcement and a county sponsored fire system should be in place.

We are a growing region that has to align, but hasn’t yet.

[Goldwingnut]

So much conjecture and misinformation here. I’ve spent countless hours writing emails and talking to residents and businesses alike on this topic in the last 3 weeks. I don’t intend to get into a long debate here but I will give you a few facts to clear up some of the misinformation the is most important and confused.

1) very few people pay only $124 for fire protection. $124 only covered about 25% of the total cost of operating the combined fire departments, the balance came from the general fund. The fire departments operations costs represent about 30% of the total general fund budget expenditures. The primary source of funding for the general fund is your county property tax - the county tax line item, not of the entire bill you receive. So about 30% of the county tax line item goes to also funding the fire departments. What does this work out to on an individual basis? Last year for my courtyard villa it is 30% of $1239.81 + $124 or about $496. For a commercial property - we’ll look at the Lofts in Brownwood, last tears County Property tax was $151803, so 30% of that is about $45,540 going to fund the fire departments + the $124 or $45665. This is the same for every property in the county. I did say a few only pay $124, these are smaller properties where the value of the property is low and their county property tax is zero because exemptions, such as homestead, reduce the tax to zero so all they pay is $124.

2) the primary source of the increase is due to the increase in ambulance capacity that was demanded by the residents 2 years ago. I guess the assumption was that someone was going to pay for this new service. Yes, there was some growth factored into this, but this organic growth in the budget was directly offset by the increased revenues received from these properties ($124 + 30% as described above). Funding for building new stations is funded separately.

3) the proposed fire assessment can only be used for fire protection/prevention operating costs, not for advanced life support (ambulance service) or building new fire stations. Basically what was done was that the 30% previously discussed was moved from the general fund out to the Fire Assessment, hence the large increase, and then the cost for ambulance service was added to the general fund offsetting the previous fire expense reduction. Government accounting can be tedious, money is moved between funding sources and the general fund and back out again to funds designated for specific expenditures, this is all done to provide accountability and the ability to follow the money trail. The net result of all of this could be summed up as saying the fire assessment increase is a result of the added ambulance service.

4) impact fees cannot fund this additional cost. Impact fees are a one time fee on new growth that can only be used for adding additional capacity to the fee’s targeted expenditures. Sumter County only has a road impact fee, so it can only be used for adding new roads or increasing capacity of existing roads that are directly impacted by the growth. We could implement a fire impact fee, but that could only be used for expanding fire capacity - new fire stations and trucks, etc. Impact fees cannot be used to offset operating costs. The operating costs - road maintenance, fire station staffing costs, etc. - cannot be funded using impact fees. This requires the question to be asked, if we collect and spend these impact fees on project X, will project X generate sufficient additional tax revenues to offset its annual operating cost? Impact fees are not recurring revenues, they are one time. Some have tried to compare Sumter County impact fees to other counties, it’s not an apples to apples comparison because each county had difference needs and designations for its impact fees. Sumpter County’s unique demographic and building requires do not, at this time, additional impact fees being levied, but even this is scheduled for its 5-year review in the upcoming fiscal year for Sumter County.

These are just a few of the key points on this issue, it is much more involved than most realize. This is what you’ve elected the county officials to understand, evaluate, and make the difficult decisions on.

I could spend the rest of the day typing here on this topic, but I have a busy day ahead of me. I, the other County Commissioners, and the county staff are willing to talk and meet with residents on this and other matters, you can arrange a call or meeting by contacting the county office main number found at Sumtercountyfl.gov.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Normal

The whole funding system needs redone. Sumter county only has one major metro player, Wildwood. Wildwood provides police services in the southern end of the Villages, but also scoops up tax dollars for it. They could or should provide all fire services for south of 44. The county shouldn’t be the main player in any of that area.

This leaves the central and northern Villages to figure out something. They should still be getting services from the county. The sheriff should be supplying law enforcement and a county sponsored fire system should be in place.

We are a growing region that has to align, but hasn’t yet.

I would recommend you attending the Sumter County Resident Academy and get a little more understanding on how things work in Sumter County and follow that up with the Villages Resident Academy to understand The Villages.

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by Normal

The whole funding system needs redone. Sumter county only has one major metro player, Wildwood. Wildwood provides police services in the southern end of the Villages, but also scoops up tax dollars for it. They could or should provide all fire services for south of 44. The county shouldn’t be the main player in any of that area.

This leaves the central and northern Villages to figure out something. They should still be getting services from the county. The sheriff should be supplying law enforcement and a county sponsored fire system should be in place.

We are a growing region that has to align, but hasn’t yet.

I am trying to figure out how many fire services we have in the county.

If there is a fire in the Villages but you live outside of Wildwood, who provides fire services?

If there is a fire in the Villages and you live in Wildwood, who provides fire services?

If you live in Wildwood but not in the Villages, who provides fire services?

If you live in Bushnell, who provides fire services?

[Normal]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

I am trying to figure out how many fire services we have in the county.

If there is a fire in the Villages but you live outside of Wildwood, who provides fire services?

If there is a fire in the Villages and you live in Wildwood, who provides fire services?

If you live in Wildwood but not in the Villages, who provides fire services?

If you live in Bushnell, who provides fire services?

We had an accident about a month ago on Meggison near the Leesburg/Lake County border, but in Sumter. The Wildwood police and fire engines were the first on the scene. I’m not sure if the fire department itself was Wildwood? Law enforcement definitely was. They had been giving out citations on Meggison. Speeders have become a major issue. Many cars are traveling at Mach speed between 6-8 am on the road.