[Advogado]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

You've been at it for over 10 years, how's that going for you???

(I couldn't resist)

Some successes and some disappointments, neither of which I will go into.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Ben Franklin

I brought up Impact fees when I first heard of this tax increase. I am from a county in Southwest Florida, where the Commissioners were also in the pockets of the developers. Taxes held pretty steady until the Commissioners dropped the impact fees, then our taxes went up. The Commissioner's response was that impact fees would stymy growth. I moved to that county when the population was around 150,000 people. Today there are close to 800,000 people, and it's a parking lot on the roadways, even in the summer.

Personal responsibility means that those who are impacting the roads and schools and other areas should be the one's paying for their impact, not the people who already live in a community. We need leaders, not puppets.

Like you did when you bought two years ago? Or did you raise the issue of such low impact fees?

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Velvet

You are welcome to subsidize any charity, including billionaires, if you want, but I prefer to chose my own charities.

Did you parents ever complain about high taxes?Low impact fees?

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Advogado

To address your points and questions:

Why no rainy day fund for the infrastructure? It is not raining. Instead, the Developer is massively expanding The Villages, which will earn him billions but will necessitate a massive infrastructure expansion. Impact fees, not rainy day funds (which are taxpayer dollars) should be used to pay for such infrastructure expansion.

Yes, the present impact-fee schedule (which gave the Developer a sweetheart rate of $901 versus $2,600 for ordinary builders) was adopted in 2015—i.e., before the massive expansion of The Villages was on the table. But it was supposed to be revised at least every 5 years. It was NOT revised when the Developer announced his massive expansion. Instead our taxes were increased. Why was this done? I think that the answer is obvious.

Why overturn One Sumter? I believe that there are valid reasons, but whether or not it is overturned we need to get rid of the Developer's toadies presently serving as Commissioners. That is the point I am trying to make, and I don't want to get sidetracked into a debate on One Sumter.

Will I be a candidate for the Board of County Commissioners? No. I am too old and don't know enough about local politics. My only objective is to see Commissioners elected who are honest, competent, and independent of the Developer.

Did you raise the question of low impact fees way back in 2007 when you bought? I assume your house was near a major street that you used?

[Velvet]

All my relatives were happy with TV, especially when Mr Schwartz was alive. He was a gentleman of vision and integrity. Generations of my family will remember and respect his legacy. Including me.

But we are talking about something else now.

[eyc234]

Originally Posted by geobar

Thankfully we had moved from "Sumter County" 2 years ago.
In our 8 years there our R E Taxes went down appropriately 8 to 10%.

Why hasn't any group in "The Villages" or Resident in Sumter County contact the Attorney General about this unrepresented R E Tax restructure to benefit the "Morse Money Hungry Mogul's"?
The 5 Board members have been planted on the Board by the "Morse Money Hungry Mogul's".

Residents are being Screwed by the "Morse Money Hungry Mogul's".
Since when do Tax payers foot the bill for any Builders impact fees?
This is unheard of in any County or State in the "United States of America".

When Gary Morse was in control this was never was even a consideration.
He made it Affordable for new purchasers and residents in Sumter County.
Actually till Nov. 2018 the Sumter County R E Taxes were lowered for over 15 continuous years.
Now live with the GREED of the "Morse Money Hungry Mogul's" (Family).

How much money do they actually need?
Look up the Wealth of the Morse Family or Individually as I found this today:
"H. Gary Morse net worth: H. Gary Morse is an American entrepreneur who has a net worth of $2.5 billion. H. Gary Morse is the son of Michigan-born developer, Harold Schwartz".

Clean up "Sumter County Government" and the "Morse Money Hungry Mogul's" (Such a Shame)

So are you dumping you Ipad, iPhone, all Microsoft equipment and software, not shopping at Walmart, not shopping at Amazon or having anything to do with corporation or owner has muuuuuuch more money than the "developer"? Oh and are you going to support all the families that make a living from jobs, restaurants etc... that go along with this development? I always marvel at how small world people can be. I can not begin to tell you the answers but just blaming someone for making money is not a solution. If they go away a lot of people are hurt but maybe that does not matter to most people.

[eyc234]

Originally Posted by Velvet

You are welcome to subsidize any charity, including billionaires, if you want, but I prefer to chose my own charities.

Many times you do not have a choice. If you pay taxes to the federal government I guarantee you are supporting charities you did not pick.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

As a Developer, developers try to maximize tax benefits and incentives while minimizing costs to develop a piece of land. This is Developer 101. It's not greed, it's business. If a city or county "gives too much away" (in the eyes of taxpayers), it's not a develop issue. The developer did a great job.

I understand your point, the only problem with your argument is that in a typical city or county the municipality is not buried so deeply in the developers pockets. In this case, many homeowners attempted to engaged in the "process", only to quickly learn the process was nothing more than and procedural scam and that the developers wishes were a pre-determined done deal. The 25% tax increase, in lieu of adequate impact fees, (which was voted on unanimously despite strong taxpayer opposition) is proof that the developer runs Sumter county. Our so called representatives are nothing more than proxies of the developer. That's not how things are supposed to work in a functional municipality. All I can say to our so called representatives is, are you familiar with what conflict of interest is?

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

Absolutely.


That is why Homeowners need to be engaged in the City/County Budget process, not wait until the taxes are determined to cover the budget.

Many homeowners, including myself, attempted to engage in the budget process. The problem is that we very quickly learned there was no real process, the developers wishes were already a done deal. Yes, they had the information sessions and meetings because they were required to. Unfortunately, our county representatives never showed any respect to, or addressed any of the concerns of the counties taxpayers.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by Advogado

To address your points and questions:

Why no rainy day fund for the infrastructure? It is not raining. Instead, the Developer is massively expanding The Villages, which will earn him billions but will necessitate a massive infrastructure expansion. Impact fees, not rainy day funds (which are taxpayer dollars) should be used to pay for such infrastructure expansion.

Yes, the present impact-fee schedule (which gave the Developer a sweetheart rate of $901 versus $2,600 for ordinary builders) was adopted in 2015—i.e., before the massive expansion of The Villages was on the table. But it was supposed to be revised at least every 5 years. It was NOT revised when the Developer announced his massive expansion. Instead our taxes were increased. Why was this done? I think that the answer is obvious.

Why overturn One Sumter? I believe that there are valid reasons, but whether or not it is overturned we need to get rid of the Developer's toadies presently serving as Commissioners. That is the point I am trying to make, and I don't want to get sidetracked into a debate on One Sumter.

Will I be a candidate for the Board of County Commissioners? No. I am too old and don't know enough about local politics. My only objective is to see Commissioners elected who are honest, competent, and independent of the Developer.

Great post!

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

Did you parents ever complain about high taxes?Low impact fees?

Mine didn't, but then again, they never lived in a county where all of the elected officials were deep in the pockets of a single developer that ran the county through their proxies.

[Dionysos]

The OP is 100% on point! Unfortunately being on point is futile in this situation. Florida is a pay to play state and goes a lot higher then the Commissioners. I am sure the Developers have some of the top lobbyist working on their behalf, such as Ron Book or Brian Ballard, that move things beyond what normal folks consider due process. It goes beyond impact fee's, zoning rules etc... The Developers have built a Mecca in the retirement world and in parallel have created a huge monetary money machine for Florida. Favors will continue to be made as long as the growth remains strong and they do not over take from the the Villages residents to quickly. 25% tax increase seems to be a number they feel works ok for the majority with little protest from the minority. Hopefully this does not become a regular thing like it has in so many other Florida Counties.

Cheers

[njbchbum]

Originally Posted by Advogado

To address your points and questions:

Why no rainy day fund for the infrastructure? It is not raining. Instead, the Developer is massively expanding The Villages, which will earn him billions but will necessitate a massive infrastructure expansion. Impact fees, not rainy day funds (which are taxpayer dollars) should be used to pay for such infrastructure expansion.

Yes, the present impact-fee schedule (which gave the Developer a sweetheart rate of $901 versus $2,600 for ordinary builders) was adopted in 2015—i.e., before the massive expansion of The Villages was on the table. But it was supposed to be revised at least every 5 years. It was NOT revised when the Developer announced his massive expansion. Instead our taxes were increased. Why was this done? I think that the answer is obvious.

snipped

Will I be a candidate for the Board of County Commissioners? No. I am too old and don't know enough about local politics. My only objective is to see Commissioners elected who are honest, competent, and independent of the Developer.

The Village of Fenny [and the need for all of its infrastructure] was announced way before its first phase opening in June of 2017 - impact fee was $901 at that time and was not to be revised at that time according to your allegation...which would not be until 2020. So that expansion was announced and begun well before your idea of "massive expansion" - no? And your taxes didn't increase then - or for so very many years up to that point! Maybe the impact fee will increase according to your alleged schedule in 2020.


One is never too old to run for office to serve the people in an honest/competent fashion! Based on my assessment of your post, you seem to think you know quite a but about local politics!

[Advogado]

Originally Posted by njbchbum

The Village of Fenny [and the need for all of its infrastructure] was announced way before its first phase opening in June of 2017 - impact fee was $901 at that time and was not to be revised at that time according to your allegation...which would not be until 2020. So that expansion was announced and begun well before your idea of "massive expansion" - no? And your taxes didn't increase then - or for so very many years up to that point! Maybe the impact fee will increase according to your alleged schedule in 2020.


One is never too old to run for office to serve the people in an honest/competent fashion! Based on my assessment of your post, you seem to think you know quite a but about local politics!

Why would the Commissioners wait until 2020 to increase the impact fee? That should have been done instead of increasing taxes once it became clear that a massive infrastructure expansion was necessary. The impact fee was not increased at that time, and property taxes were, for the reasons outlined in my original post.

[Martian]

The title of the thread is misleading. The implication is that ONLY TV tax payers are paying and second that somehow the developers would foot the bill if it were not taxed.

The fact is that residents in TV would pay one way or the other. The money is for things that would be done no matter what given the growth of TV. Also, it can be argued that the development of TV in this county increases the value of properties around TV.

This seems to be the same argument that "I don't have kids, why should I pay for schools", or "I don't own a car why should I pay for roads", and on and on. We all share in the cost of our community, it can be paid up front, or buried in taxes, or hidden in "invisible taxes" (like gasoline taxes).

A better question to me would be "are we getting our moneys worth". The fact is is being paid through taxes or amenity or bond or built into home sales price is not relevant to me.