:bigbow::bigbow::bigbow:

IMHO due to the extensive size of the new development and the necessary upgrading of roads and more in existing developed areas an enormous amount of 'up front' money is needed - and needed NOW! I suppose bonds could be issued to raise money but they could not be tax free municipal bonds and would need to pay a higher rate of interest to be successfully marketed to the public as taxable bonds. I don't believe waiting on house by house impact fee payments however much they might be is a viable option to obtain the millions of up front dollars needed as some infrastructure will need to be in place prior to the first house being built. So, perhaps some genius with the developer proposed the huge countywide tax increase to fund the required infrastructure and the councilors bought it.

I am trying to follow your logic, if what you are saying is true then why wouldn't the developer gladly pay the impact fee and simply pass it on to the new homes sale price while maintaining their profit margin? I highly doubt pi$$ing off the majority of existing residents with a huge tax increase is something the developers would do if it had no impact on profits?

I keep asking myself, would this have happened if Gary Morse was still alive and running operations?

You can't follow the logic because there is no logic to follow. Your analysis is absolutely correct.

You are too far into the conspiracy camp.....thinking the Developer controls commissioners and tax increases.


The Impact Fee is/was set, why would a business go to the county and ask for an increase?? If the county doesn't do it, TV houses are cheaper.


As I said, the developer will maintain their 30% margin.


:ho:

Why should the developer be obligated to build housing for the workforce?

There is affordable housing available here. Everywhere around here.The developer provides jobs for the workforce. The workforce gets a paycheck and they can provide themselves with affordable housing.

When posting opinions about this topic, I notice that the people who are against development impact fees imposed against the developers, are basically speaking exclusively on behalf of themselves as Villagers. The people who are in favor of increased impact fees are speaking on behalf of themselves as residents of the County, or sympathetic to residents of the County (which would be me, since I am not a resident of Sumter County but remain sympathetic to their situation).

So once again - "me" vs. "us." Pro-impact fee embraces a unified county. Anti-impact fee embraces division.

There are many, many, many, homes in adjacent communities that are very affordable for almost everyone.

Here is an example when I googled Leesburg.
https://www.point2homes.com/US/Cheap.../Leesburg.html

OK, let's assume you are correct, that begs the next obvious question that has no logical answer. Why would the county representatives make a total sham out of the budget process, totally ignoring the input and showing utter disrespect to the taxpayers who attempted to engage in the process. Why did they not listen to the residents concerns and consider raising the impact fees as opposed to a 25% tax increase? I highly doubt that between all 5 representatives, at least one of them wasn't aware that was an option that could be considered and discussed as an alternative to a huge tax increase? Now if that happened, the process might have been viewed as somewhat on the up and up.

I know you keep mentioning that people need to be involved in the process before the increase, not complain after. Many taxpayers, including myself, ATTEMPTED TO GET INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS, but quickly learned the process was not a real process, the county was simple holding the meetings required by law and ignoring all taxpayer input in opposition of their proposal. That does way more bad than good, since now people have no confidence in the process and are less likely to get involved in the future. Very sad!

I would bet that none of the anonymous posters who, either naively or because of some connection with the Developer, defend what the Commissioners have done to the taxpayers of Sumter County in order to benefit the Developer attended the two public meetings you describe. What we saw there was both disgusting and demoralizing. The “fix” was clearly in.

Hopefully, you are wrong about Sumter County residents thereby becoming “less likely to get involved in the future”. Hopefully, they will turn out in droves in the Republican primary next August and in the general election thereafter and vote the bums out.

As in most elections - the majority of people eligible to vote in the previous ones, were either not registered, or registered but didn't vote. MOST eligible people don't vote, for anyone, at all.

Hopefully this situation will encourage more people to vote, not fewer. Now they know the results of their inaction.

As I have stated before I have neither a county or developer preference, just a need to stay openminded with eyes and thoughts to the best answer for as many people as can be. Keep facts out there, not opinions, hearsay and the whole truth with a little bit of optimism and also a fair bit of vigilance. Attached below is the link to 2019 Florida Impact Fee Act. I know it is a little hard to read but it also can answer questions/statements that have been posed in this thread. After reading this then go download the Sumter county budget and read it. It is very long and detailed and a great way for an old CPA to spend time in front of The View(aaaaagh). The Act has quite a few things you can and can not do. Have fun and let us know what you say after reading them both. There are a lot of possibilities to for making the future better for the county and that should be the focus. Remember a higher impact fee is a one time payment, if there are no houses built after x date what do you do to finance the future of this county. Have blasted many companies in the past who fired workforce and then said look we made money this year, first question is how are you going to make money next year, fire the employees that are left or think outside the box for new products, ongoing savings, new clients, etc... Remember that you can not look solely at yourself and your neighbors to determine the effects something will have but on the county/society as a whole. Go ahead I am ready for the bashing that will come but hopefully logical and workable solutions come about for as many as possible.

Statutes & Constitution
:View Statutes
:

Online Sunshine

Assume there are 50,000 homes in Sumter county, and taxes increased by say, $400 (my very average residence went up by $600) that means someone just collected an extra $20 million dollars.

Attended both and the presentations/workshops on trash and recycling. Nothing demoralizes me, it only makes me work harder to work to fix the issues. I ask also whether it has to be Republican, could there never be a good Democrat candidate? This from someone who says throw them all out at each election and is a member of neither party.

Also please send me a note and I will be glad to speak with you.

As a practical matter, a Democrat is not going to get elected in Sumter County. An independent maybe. I personally don't care about party affiliation at the county-commissioner level. I just want commissioners who are competent, honest, and independent of the Developer. (And to head off responses: The Villages is a great place to live, and I don't want to screw the Developer. I just want him to pay for his own expansion.)

The POA Bulletin, just picked up in our driveway takes me back to the negativity of days of yore.

Please do not mistake objectivity for negativity. That $40,000,000 settlement the POA won from the developer says it all.

[QUOTE=graciegirl;1685960]The POA Bulletin, just picked up in our driveway takes me back to the negativity of days of yore.[/QUOTE


Hopefully it also brings you back to reality.

I've never understood the reasoning behind those who constantly side with entities who don't have their best self interest. Or is it not a reasoning but an emotion?

So how do we know if an entity has our best interest at heart?

Tha answer is to look at what that entity does. Many of us look at The Villages and see a wonderful place for us to live. We look at the Southern Area and see new things, like walking trails, that we wish we had in our area. It seems like The Villages management is making things better than ever, and that is why we support them.

If we did not like what we see, we would not support them. Simple as that.

Yep...you nailed it. :thumbup:

The POA deals in facts/research/truth and as we know, there are a whole lot of people...who have a serious allergy to such. :ohdear:

I don't think anybody is disputing that The Villages is nice place to live.

The question is: Who should pay for the infrastructure necessary because of the Developer's massive expansion of The Villages: the Developer, who initiated, and will profit from, the expansion, OR the Sumter County taxpayers, who will not profit from it and generally oppose it? The answer should be obvious.

Why are the taxpayers, and not the developer, paying for the expansion of the village
 

The Buena Vista extension is not an amenity. Why should we pay for it? They also don't build nice amenities because they like us or they want us to have nice things, they do it to attract buyers. They don't need our support, only our money. I don't "support" GM but I like their Escalade. It's a nice SUV. With or without my support it would still be a nice SUV.

Because it benefits Sumter County and you live in Sumter County? Just a thought!

Why are the taxpayers, and not the developer, paying for the expansion of the village
 

It wouldn't need to be built if there weren't any houses going in. Who's building the houses that need egress? Not Sumter County. Not me or you. Let Morse pay for the road.

We are paying for it with property taxes, not amenity fees. Why should we pay for it, well that's a good question. In my opinion we shouldn't. Without the development of the Villages South, the extension would not be necessary. Those who stand to benefit from the new development should also be responsible for paying for the infrastructure that is required because of the development they profit from.

The answer is not obvious to me.

What is obvious to me is the nice lifestyle provided by The Villages and the amount we have to pay for it.

Right now the amount we have to pay is reasonable and our lifestyle is very good. If that changes in a negative way, we will make some changes.

////

As I (and others) have pointed out before: you are posting from the perspective of someone who clearly ignores that there are thousands of people living in Sumter County who are NOT residents of the Villages. They are not benefiting from any of this expansion, but they are being forced to pay for it.

But won't the entire county benefit from all the taxes those new houses will be paying?

Actually, no they won't. There are roads in Sumter County that are NOT Villages roads, that have been sorely in need of repaving for years, and have been ignored and neglected. Meanwhile, Sumter tax dollars pay for the roads that exist because the Villages exist, to be repaired and repaved, for traffic studies and tweaks on the areas of the main state roads that lead into and out of the Villages.

SOME of the taxes actually pay for "the entire county." But most do not.

Oh, I thought Kenswing was joking.

There are hundreds of County roads you don't drive on and don't benefit you, but you pay for them as well.


I've never been down SE 36th Blvd, but my tax dollars go to maintain it. I guess I shouldn't have to pay for it.


It's just not fair................I guess I should whine.




:ohdear:

So property taxes in Sumter County don't pay for more than roads and projects in the Villages?

Morse is building a megalopolis and he needs the primary roads to accomplish this. Let Morse pay for it.

Typically, an impact fee per house is sufficient to pay for the primary infrastructure. In this case Morse is getting a sweetheart deal on the impact fees whereby those fees are insufficient to pay for it.

...

And that is how it was always done, until now. The homeowner paid the bond that paid for the initial infrastructure.

Not the primary roads.