Terry Yoder
T & D Family of Companies
1969 County Road 228
Wildwood, FL 34758
August 15, 2023
Citizens of Sumter County, it's time to WAKE UP! You are all being led like sheep to the slaughter, with no idea about what's going on around you. I am writing to talk to you about the Sumter County Commissioners raising the Fire Assessment and trying to pretend this isn't just another way to raise taxes. The wool is being pulled over your eyes. The Commissioners want you to believe this is not a big deal and will only cost you $323.64 – which is about $200 per house more than what you pay now – but that is NOT TRUE! Why am I saying this? Because they are NOT telling you that the business people in town are raising their assessments so high, their only choice will be to raise prices on all the goods and services you use daily as Villagers. According to the County Commissioner study, your household assessment will increase 161%. That sounds like a lot, but do you know what the commercial and industrial businesses will be forced to pay? As an example, under what the County Commissioners say in their study, the assessment for my 30,000-square-foot building will be $10,320.00. THAT IS AN INCREASE OF OVER 8,000%. AND THIS WILL HAPPEN TO ALL THE BUSINESS OWNERS IN SUMTER COUNTY, NOT JUST ME AND MY COMPANY!
Do you think the business owners will just put their hands in their pockets and pay for these ridiculous increases? NO! They are NOT going to pay. Do you know who will pay? You guessed it – YOU! Your local bar and restaurant owners, hairdressers, nail salons, grocery stores, big box stores, clothing stores, apartment complexes, gas stations, churches, country clubs, mechanics, golf cart stores, boutiques, builders – and every other business in Sumter County that owns commercial, industrial or institutional space will have their assessment raised so high they will have no choice but to pass it on to YOU, the citizens.
Does this sound like authentic conservative leadership? Ronald Reagan always believed in LESS GOVERNMENT and LESS TAXES. What is happening is a true example of GOVERNMENT GONE WILD. These commissioners should be ashamed of themselves. They say, on the one hand, they aren't raising taxes, but they are talking out of both sides of their mouth. This never would have happened with the commissioners we had 5 years ago. Some of these commissioners have never been business owners that had to pay salaries, insurance, expenses, and overhead to keep the doors open and families fed. So they don't understand – because they have never had skin in the game. They should tell you the truth – THIS IS A TAX IN DISGUISE! You may only be paying $323.64 for the assessment on your house, but believe me; this assessment will cost you much more because the business owners can't survive unless they pass the cost of this assessment to YOU! Do you think your commissioners are going to pay for these increases? I don't think so!
And why are we paying these assessments? The commissioners will tell you that it's to get better fire service in Sumter County and the Villages. What most citizens in Sumter County want is advanced life support (ALS). But did you know that this assessment doesn't even pay for advanced life support? The study says that advanced life support will have to be paid by raising property taxes through an MSTU in
the County – another tax – and through amenity and transport fees in the Villages. (Pg. 15). This assessment will be used to pay for more inflated salaries and to fund more pensions.
Do I have your attention yet? If not, keep reading.
Let's take a look at the study that the commissioners prepared to justify increasing your taxes – that they are calling an assessment - but are hoping you don't actually read.
Page 1 – Fire assessment MSBU's MAY NOT fund costs related to non-traditional fire department services such as ALS. The part of the budget that deals with ALS is not included in coming up with the assessment. ALS is advanced life support. Advanced life support includes making incisions in a patient, inserting tubes in people to help them breathe, or using needles to give drugs to people. Basic life support (BLS) include being a first responder, giving CPR, using a defib machine, and helping keep an airway open until someone with advanced life support training arrives.
Page 3 – Sumter County Fire/EMS has 10 stations, and the Villages Public Safety Department has 8 fire stations, with 4 more on the way. ALS is provided from ALL of these stations, so the ALS and BLS are all mixed in together. This means the commissioners must find a way to split it all up. They do this by trying to measure the benefit of having the fire department available 24/7, response times, communication systems, staff and equipment and water supply. Then they come up with a rating. It's all a shell game, and they can come up with these numbers any way they want to come up with the answers they need. You'll see why when you keep reading.
Page 4 – The ratings go from 1 to 10, with 1 being the best. As it sits right now, Sumter County Fire has a rating of 3, and the Villages Fire has a rating of 2. That's better than most of the other communities in the state. The study also says that ONLY 5% of the incidents that the fire department responds to are for actual FIRES.
Page 5 – Talks about why the commissioners can only charge an assessment for BLS and not ALS because ALS does not provide a special benefit to our property.
Page 6 – Talks about how the assessment can only include traditional fire services like fire suppression – which is only 5% of the calls - fire prevention, fire/building inspection, and being first responders – BLS.
Pages 7 to 14 – This is where you really have to pay attention. This is where the commissioners try to tell us that the amount of total ALS services being provided in the County is only 38%; this means that the amount of money that needs to be paid for by the assessment is 62% of the total fire/rescue budget. This is where the numbers don't make sense. That's because the numbers are watered down. The service rates were added up using numbers over a 10-year time frame. This is so the commissioners can water everything down and make it look like the ALS amount is small and the BLS and fire services amounts are much larger than they really are. It's fuzzy math.
If you look at the last column of the table on Page 8, it's easy to see. The study goes back to 2013. In 2013, ALS service needs were 21.4 % - and in 2022 – they increased to 50.6%. The ALS services have been going up every year for the last 10 years, but when you use 10 years to make the numbers, the commissioners can water it all down and make the ALS number smaller and the BLS and the fire services number bigger, so that the assessment can be bigger. If you use the service numbers over the past 5 years, the ALS service is 43.5% and Non-ALS service is 56.5%. If you use the service numbers over the
past 3 years, the ALS service is 45.8% and the Non-ALS service is 54.2%. Using the numbers over the past 3 years instead of the 10-year period the commissioners are using reduces the assessment amount from 62% to 54.2%. If you believe this assessment is even necessary, this would reduce the amount by at least $7,000,000.00. Using more recent numbers would also reduce the square footage amounts being charged to the businesses. Also, there is no information in the study that talks about how much the fire department charges and gets paid by the health insurance we already pay for. Why?
The commissioners are saying they need almost $40,000,000.00 for this assessment. This includes salaries of almost $30,000,000.00, operating expenses of almost $7,500,000.00 and "miscellaneous" expenses of over $2,600,000.00. Residential property owners are being asked to pay $27,606,751.00, and business owners are being asked to pay $9,788,000.00 to maintain and improve our fire departments which already have a rating of 2 and 3 (with 1 as the best). AND THIS DOES NOT EVEN INCLUDE NEW TAXES AND FEES THAT WILL BE NECESSARY TO PAY FOR UPGRADING THE ADVANCED LIFE SUPPORT - ALS -SERVICES!!!
You should be asking yourself why this is necessary. Is it worth the cost to fix what isn't even broken? How much will the new fees and taxes cost us to pay for upgrading the advanced life support? How much will our goods and services cost that will be passed on to us by every local business that provides goods and services? Will response times be increased, and if so, by how much? What amount of our health insurance is already being paid to the Sumter and Villages Fire Departments for claims they make? Is there double-dipping going on by the County charging us and also getting paid by insurance? What will the commissioners do with all of the property tax money they will be saving by charging this new tax?
I am ashamed of this attempt by our so-called conservative leaders to charge us with another tax because that's what this is. This is just another example of the government getting fatter with out-of- control spending. I have lived in this community for over 40 years, and I have watched things grow the right way with other commissioners that were in charge before this group. I will do everything I can to show the people of Sumter County the truth. In my opinion, all of our commissioners are RINOS that only want to raise our taxes and make government bigger! They need to be replaced. When election time comes around again, I will only support candidates that have true conservative values and not abuse their power to tax us.
It's time to stand up and be heard. You now have some facts – don't complain about local businesses raising costs after it's too late. Don't be sheep! Let your commissioners know that Sumter County does not need this unnecessary tax!
Terry Yoder
Citizen of Sumter County
Business Owner in Sumter County
True Conservative
Patriot
