To the Editor:
They’re doing it again. The false, erroneous and misleading information on the front page of the The Villages Daily Sun is just more of the doom and gloom BS. And then on page 17 and 18, the paper talks about, “Earnings Gain Lifts All Boats In Villages” and “Experts Offer an Optimistic Outlook For Villages Economy.” I heard from a reliable source that the house sales, both new and resales, in The Villages are unexpectedly high. And the sellers are getting almost their asking prices. Obviously, this will bring in more new tax revenue to allow for a tax roll back along with the increase in the impact fees.
The examples that the paper used of the large companies moving into Miami, Orlando, Melbourne and Fort Meyers are not the type of companies that would move to Sumter County. Would Lloyds of London have any reason to move to Sumter as opposed to Miami? Would an aviation training company move to Sumter to be close to Leesburg Airport or to expand its current training facility in Orlando?
The paper calls it a tax increase. There is no mention that they are impact fees that are paid only once, as opposed to taxes which are paid annually, and that they are caused by new development. Most of that new development is occurring due to the expansion of The Villages below State Road 44. Why should all Sumter County taxpayers pay for something that is caused by new development, while the beneficiaries of this new development are the new homeowners?
The paper talks about where Oren Miller and Gary Search are from. The fact that they came from high tax states has no bearing on their attempting to correct the 25 percent tax increase thrust upon homeowners who have already paid their one time impact fees. Instead of indicating that any home being built in The Villages would incur a $2,430 impact fee instead of the current $972 if the fees were raised to the 100 percent level, they use the terms doubling the fee or raising it 150 percent. By stating it in percentages, the paper makes it sound very onerous, while the increase in the costs of a new home in The Villages would only be a one time charge of $1,458 if the Developer included the entire increase in the purchase price of the new home.
There were three new county commissioners elected last November. They ran as the EMS team and pledged to roll back the unfair 25 percent tax increase passed in 2019. At that same time, the commissioners decided that the county would give all new development, homes and businesses, a 60 percent reduction in the impact fees required for new home or business. Why? The increased costs associated with any new development should be borne by the people who are getting the benefits of that new development. That is, new homeowners, not the other homeowners in Sumter County who have already paid for the roads that they are using.
Since the campaign the three new commissioners ran on included rolling back the 25 percent tax increase and increasing the impact fees to the 100 percent level, they should now honor their commitment. They were all elected by a huge majority of Sumter County voters. Obviously, the voters felt strongly that what the county did on 2019 was not in their best interests. They were looking for a change from the partisan politics of the past. It’s time all three new commissioners stepped up to the plate and passed the legislation that the voters expect. Just do it.
Jay Kaplan
Village of Sabal Chase
