The Landslide Vote to Roll Back the Property-Tax Increase by Increasing Impact Fees. The subject of impact fees and property taxes is complex and not very sexy. However, the combination of a sweetheart impact fee for the Developer and higher property taxes for Sumter County residents to pay for the Developer’s county roads and other infrastructure results in each of us giving the Developer an annual gift of hundreds of dollars. The residents woke up to that fact last year. We tossed out three developer puppet Commissioners (Butler, Burgess, and Printz) and elected County Commissioners Estep, Miller, and Search (the “EMS team”) in a landslide, resulting in the EMS team having a majority on the 5-member Commission.
That landslide occurred because of the EMS team’s campaign promise to roll back the massive 25 percent property-tax hike. That tax hike had been enacted, in 2019, by the Developer’s puppet Commissioners, in order to protect the Developer’s sweetheart impact fee (which is about 5 percent of what he would be required to pay in Collier County, where developers don’t control the County Commission). The EMS team proposed to roll back the tax hike by requiring the Developer to finally start paying for the County infrastructure necessitated by the massive expansion of The Villages, instead of continuing to offload that cost on to the current residents. In other words, the impact-fee increase would finance the property-tax rollback.
The Developer’s Frustrating the Will of the Residents. It now looks like the Developer has been successful in frustrating the will of Sumter County residents, thereby potentially saving himself hundreds of millions of dollars at our expense. The Developer’s apparent success was accomplished via the following actions:
- Lobbying. Successfully convincing Commissioners Estep and Search not to immediately push forward with their promise to increase impact fees and reduce property-taxes. (Commissioner Miller stood his ground.) The delay gave the Developer time to marshal his campaign to preserve his sweetheart impact fee.
- Propaganda Campaign. A propaganda campaign in the Developer’s Daily Sun to distort the facts, attack the EMS team, and oppose the impact-fee increase– falsely labeling it as a “tax increase”, rather than as a tax shifting from current residents to the Developer. The Daily Sun’s propaganda campaign has been abetted by the little group of Developer loyalists who still control the local Republican Party. They have launched a series of personal attacks on fellow Republicans Estep, Miller, and Search, despite the fact that we rank-and-file Republicans overwhelming voted for those three.
- Packing Commission Meetings. Packing the County Commission meetings with employees of his suppliers and with his other cohorts and filling the parking lot with their heavy equipment.
- State Legislation Co-sponsored by an Employee of the Developer. Finally, playing his ace in the hole by having the Florida legislature pass statewide legislation (co-sponsored by the Developer’s employee-legislator, Brett Hage) that handcuffs local governments that attempt to require developers to pay for their own infrastructure. The legislation was unsuccessfully opposed by the League of Florida Cities and the Florida Association of Counties because it will devastate local governments’ ability to finance new schools, police and fire facilities, parks, libraries, sewers, etc. However, cities and counties don’t make campaign contributions. Developers make big ones. For more details, click here: https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2021/03/25/fl-legislators-bigfoot-local-government-to-benefit-big-money-developers/
The Angeliadis Fishing Expedition. Those actions by the Developer were supplemented by a public-records-request fishing expedition conducted by attorney George Angeliadis. That fishing expedion was obviously intended to try to turn up dirt on, and harass and intimidate, Estep, Miller, and Search–as well as their supporters (including myself). The fishing expedition failed to turn up any dirt because there is no dirt to turn up. Angeliadis still refuses to identify his well-heeled client who paid him for his efforts, and the remaining two Developer-puppet Commissioners (Gilpin and Breeden) refuse to reveal what they know about it.
So, Did the Residents Win the Battle but Lose the War? The residents of Sumter County clearly won the first battle by tossing out three of the Developer’s puppet Commissioners in the last election. However, as a result of the Developer’s actions, culminating in the new state legislation, it looks like we, along with other residents throughout the whole state, have lost the war to roll back our tax increase. But next year, the remaining two Developer puppet Commissioners are up for re-election, as is the Developer’s employee, State Representative Brett Hage. Maybe the war isn’t over yet.
Scott Fenstermaker is a resident of The Villages and a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com.
