The new Villages residents of Fruitland Park continued rants at the City Council about budgets & taxes at the Sept. 27th meeting

Oct. 30, 2018  by Vance Jochim

Fruitland Park, FL City Council 2nd Budget & millage hearing on Sept. 27, 2018

 

This Sept. 27, 2018 meeting video (link below) is the second of two required annual Fruitland Park, FL City Council hearings for the annual budget and millage rate.  It was moved to a local Church to accommodate over 100 Villagers residents complaining about tax rates, spending, etc.   The Council already selected the property tax rollback rate after the first, earlier hearing.

 

The two meeting videos (links below) clearly show the disparity over support for taxation and spending priorities between the residents of "old" Fruitland Park and the new Villages residents, mostly retirees, who just moved into an expansion of The Villages that is within Lake County and Fruitland Park, rather than Sumter County.    Because the new Villages development added 2000+ homes and 4000+ residents to 4000 resident Fruitland Park, the City Council districts were changed earlier to residence based. Two of the five City Council districts are now in the Villages area and new Villages residents will be selected for the City Council on the Nov. 6, 2018 ballot.

 

Some of the issues covered at the first Sept. 13, 2018 hearing and this Sept. 27, 2018 second hearing include:

- Overspending on a planned new library.  Villagers reviewed the plans and found budgets for excessive costs for furniture which staff admitted at the second hearing was inserted to qualify for a potential grant which was not approved.  In other words, staff budgeted for really costly furniture to run costs up just to qualify for another grant.

- Many questions about the doubling of the police force.

- Anger over how Lake County property taxes are higher than Sumter County.  (Many of the Villagers also attended a Lake County Board budget hearing and vented.

- Anger over the doubling of the Lake County Water Authority property tax from about .25 mills to almost .5 mills'

- Aggravation over the 1 mill North Lake Hospital Tax District tax.

- ' We don't have these taxes or high ones in Sumter County..."

- Those who are trying to SELL one of the Villages houses in the Fruitland Park boundaries are finding that due to higher taxes, realtors are not showing them to potential Villages buyers. 

 

Length of video is 2 hours, 37 minutes.

Video created by Vance Jochim of the Lake County, FL fiscal watchdog blog FiscalRangers.com.  

Vance is at [email protected] 

The short link to the second hearing video is:  https://youtu.be/2tnYfvKb2As