The Saturday, Aug. 1 edition of the The Villages Daily Sun had a half-page-Developer-financed ad supporting Al Butler. It boasted that Al Butler was a conservative who kept your taxes low. In fact, in the ad, Mr. Butler calls the 25.5% tax increase “FAKE NEWS”.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. In response to the recent League of Women Voters candidates’ questionnaire, Mr. Butler stated that he strongly supported “the 25% increase in property tax adopted by the Commissioners in 2019”. All three incumbents (Butler, Burgess, and Printz) agreed at a recent Budget Workshop that the millage rate did increase 25.5% in 2019. That is now in the public record!
There is nothing FAKE about the massive tax increase. In FACT, at last fall’s budget hearings, not one Commissioner stated that the tax increase was not 25%. Nevertheless, in an outright lie, the incumbents’ ad then states as “FACT”: Property taxes have come DOWN over the past 15 years!”
To continue to tout how “conservative” the incumbents are when they raised your taxes by 25.5% in 2019 is absurd. If you want to see how your taxes truly increased on the Sumter County line of your Ad Valorem taxes (the only line on your tax bill for which the Commissioners are responsible), just follow the step by step instructions here: https://www.villages-news.com/2020/06/07/the-real-math-behind-the-25-sumter-county-tax-increase/
Al Butler has also claimed that I, Gary Search, am a “Career Politician”. I actually spent my 35-year “career” as a teacher, counselor, coach, and professional-development instructor, caring for and training our next generation of leaders. In addition to my career, I was a township commissioner for 13 years as a conservative Republican. That was public service, not a career. Furthermore, during my tenure, we had no tax increases and could not, even in our wildest dreams, have imagined a 25% one.
The incumbents need to quit trying to trick the voters of Sumter County into believing the incumbents were not responsible for the 25.5% Sumter County Tax increase. They need to take responsibility for their lack of foresight in the budgeting process. The incumbents also need to admit that they are paying for County infrastructure, necessitated by the Developer’s massive expansion of The Villages, through the tax increase–instead of through an increase in the Developer’s sweetheart impact fee. This combination amounts to giving the Developer hundreds of millions of dollars at taxpayer expense.
For open, honest, and transparent government, replace the incumbents with the EMS Candidates, real Conservatives, and real Republicans Estep, Miller, and Search, in the primary election.
Village Gary Search is a candidate for Sumter County Commissioner, District 1.