[Byte1]

Originally Posted by Laker14

No I don't, since my post to which you responded had neither a question nor a complaint.

You are absolutely right. My mistake. I meant to answer this one.

Originally Posted by rogerrice60

Hard to understand why the "Old Goats" are taxed for schools we don't use.

I have no idea how I ended up replying to your post. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[kkingston57]

Originally Posted by Randall55

I was pondering the same. Why did school taxes go up when 70-80% of the tax base do not have children? If you take into account the Developer built three new schools at no charge, it makes less sense. Maybe, they are upgrading/remodeling the older schools? Maybe, more children have moved into the area? Quite a bit of apartments, townhomes, and subdivisions have been built.

Wonder if the developer built schools at no charge and if so, why.

[Laker14]

Originally Posted by Byte1

You are absolutely right. My mistake. I meant to answer this one.


I have no idea how I ended up replying to your post. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

No worries. Sometimes the program glitches that way.

[Laker14]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

It would have been much more accurate if the bill was called “screw the part time residents”. Bottom line, any taxes saved by one party under the bill are being paid by the other parties the bill doesn’t give a break to.

Or, "let's give the break to someone who can vote for me, not someone who can't vote for me"...something like that.

However, there is some logic to it. Where I live in Upstate NY, families who have owned lake property for generations are being taxed out of ownership, because the more affluent people from the big cities are retiring with all of that Big City Money, and buying up properties.
Being a rural area, people who have worked hard all of their lives, but earning the kind of money you earn in small rural towns, can't keep up.

[Michael 61]

Just received my first tax bill, as a soon-to-be one year resident next month.

School Tax is high - in doing my research of 55+ communities to retire to in the US - the one advantage that Sun City and Sun City West Arizona have is that they are in no school district - so their property taxes are considerably lower than other retirement communities. I read that the reason why the neighboring school districts allowed this for Sun City/Sun City West, is that the school boards feared that all school tax initiatives would be voted down when they appeared on the ballot, since most older folks would not be in favor of increasing school taxes. But that is a two-sided coin, they also miss out on any tax revenue as well.

[asianthree]

Originally Posted by Michael 61

Just received my first tax bill, as a soon-to-be one year resident next month.

School Tax is high - in doing my research of 55+ communities to retire to in the US - the one advantage that Sun City and Sun City West Arizona have is that they are in no school district - so their property taxes are considerably lower than other retirement communities. I read that the reason why the neighboring school districts allowed this for Sun City/Sun City West, is that the school boards feared that all school tax initiatives would be voted down when they appeared on the ballot, since most older folks would not be in favor of increasing school taxes. But that is a two-sided coin, they also miss out on any tax revenue as well.

Bonus this year your taxes are based on Dirt, next year the real numbers will be very different

[tophcfa]

Just ran the numbers on our tax bill. Total taxes up 13.5%. School taxes up 32.4%. School tax increase represents over 97% of total tax increase, so excluding school our taxes are basically unchanged. School tax mileage rate up 8.8%, but assessed value for school taxes up 21.6% (versus assessed value increase of 10% for other ad valorem taxes). School taxes represent over 53% of total ad valorem taxes.

Conclusions:
- As part time resident, we are getting screwed. Increased assessed values, and corresponding tax increases, are significantly greater than those with homestead status. It certainly doesn’t seem fair since part timers use less County services yet pay a greater share of taxes.
- A shell game going on with school taxes, 21.6% increase in assessed value for school versus 10% increase for county taxes. Why is our home assessed 24% higher for school taxes versus county taxes?
- Very large % tax increase on the heals of recent 25% increase. And that’s with zero increase in our district’s maintenance assessment and only $1 increase in fire (this year, stay tuned on that front).
- After the unexpected and ridiculously large school tax shock, we are finding it extremely difficult to get excited about the new charter school. Why should we?
- Since purchasing our Villages home 8 years ago, our annual Sumter County tax bill has increased by 55.9%. That rate of tax increases is unsustainable for senior citizens living on a fixed income. Over the same time period, the cost of living increases for social security add up to 25.8%. Put another way, Sumter county’s tax increases have outpaced social security’s cost of living increases by 30.1%. The county needs to learn to live with the same financial discipline as the residents paying the county taxes.

[LuvtheVillages]

Originally Posted by kkingston57

Wonder if the developer built schools at no charge and if so, why.

The Developer builds terrific schools so that he can attract terrific employees. The schools are only open to children of employees, or businesses inside the Villages.

He built them with his own money. BUT the school district pays to lease the buildings. And, larger schools require more staff. Thus, the increase in the school tax.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Yes, and just like income tax, this is totally FAIR, right????

After all, we all know it costs 20x as much to educate a child who lives in a $2 million house than one that lives in a $100,000 home. Right????? Just another free lunch---Oh, yeah, they get that too.

Taxes aren't about what's fair and what's not fair. What's fair, is that ALL children have the same opportunity to have the same quality education, and that all children are GIVEN (not purchased) the same opportunity to thrive and grow up to be contributing adults and participating in a civilized country.

If that means millionaire's 10% tax comes to $50,000 while a poor person's 10% tax comes to $5 then yes. It's fair.

When a millionaire buys a 12-pack of toilet paper, he's paying 7% sales tax, same as the poor person who buys it. They both pay 7% of the cost of that pack of toilet paper.

So unless you're okay with the poor person living in the millionaire's house, you'll need to just accept that the dollar amount will be different, because the poor person is paying tax on a different product - even though the percentage is the same.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Taxes aren't about what's fair and what's not fair. What's fair, is that ALL children have the same opportunity to have the same quality education, and that all children are GIVEN (not purchased) the same opportunity to thrive and grow up to be contributing adults and participating in a civilized country.

Premise A) If that means millionaire's 10% tax comes to $50,000 while a poor person's 10% tax comes to $5 then yes. It's fair.

Premise B) When a millionaire buys a 12-pack of toilet paper, he's paying 7% sales tax, same as the poor person who buys it. They both pay 7% of the cost of that pack of toilet paper.

So unless you're okay with the poor person living in the millionaire's house, you'll need to just accept that the dollar amount will be different, because the poor person is paying tax on a different product - even though the percentage is the same.

I knew I could draw you out with my post

So, to continue:

Premise A----grossly unfair, especially when irresponsible people have 6 children that they can't afford but expect the rest of us to pay for them

Premise B) VERY fair---pay the same for the same product, pay the same sales tax. Charmin is sold at a set price, not at a percentage of income.

[mtdjed]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

I knew I could draw you out with my post

So, to continue:

Premise A----grossly unfair, especially when irresponsible people have 6 children that they can't afford but expect the rest of us to pay for them

Premise- A statement seems argumentative since home taxes have been established this way for ages. Buy a more expensive house and you pay higher taxes. Make more taxable income and pay higher taxes. This is not a unique situation in The Villages.

Unless of course you enjoy bating certain people.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by mtdjed

Premise- A statement seems argumentative since home taxes have been established this way for ages. Buy a more expensive house and you pay higher taxes. Make more taxable income and pay higher taxes. This is not a unique situation in The Villages.

Unless of course you enjoy bating certain people.

The point is that so called progressive taxation is inherently unfair—-it is government forced Robin Hood

[RPDaly]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

The point is that so called progressive taxation is inherently unfair—-it is government forced Robin Hood

////

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

It's not so much that taxes go up, it's more about what they're used for.

I don't mind paying taxes as long as they are used responsibly and increase the local quality of life.

Otherwise, the local governments are just grifters. .

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy

I don't mind paying taxes as long as they are used responsibly and increase the local quality of life.

Otherwise, the local governments are just grifters. .

If you love to golf, play pickleball or do any of the other myriad of activities offered by the Villages then the tax seems to be worth it.

They have shorted the movie lovers a great deal though and probably to make more money.