Rising taxes create discord in Harmony
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Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel
By Mari Robyn Jones
Published October 8, 2007
HARMONY - When Kerul Kassel decided to move into this
environmentally friendly community, she had a vague idea about the board that
would impose taxes on her and other residents.
These taxes, levied by a governmental body called a community development
district, would help build the town's infrastructure and pay for things such as
lake maintenance and utility bills.
But as the community grew, she didn't expect the taxes to increase at what she
considers a substantial rate. She also expected residents to be elected sooner
to the district's board, whose supervisors are appointed at the direction of the
developer in the community's early years.
Other residents have similar concerns that the developer is
asking them to pay more than their share of the community's start-up. Residents
love the "town," with its pristine lakes and energy-efficient homes,
but dislike the increases in their assessments.
Some worry they may eventually be priced out of their homes: Not only do they
have to pay for their district assessments, they also have to pay their county
taxes and homeowner's association fees.
For fiscal year 2008, which began Monday, the community development district
will spend an additional $333,000 this year, an increase of about 25 percent.
The budget went from about $1.35 million to about $1.69 million.
"I don't like it," said resident Shalyn Solevilla, an engineer whose
assessments are going up by nearly $200 to about $2,847. "I didn't think it
was going to keep going up. It's something that I didn't budget for, and now I
have to spend for it."
But the board says the increase in the district's spending, which has partly
fueled the higher assessments, isn't unfair. Instead, says the board's general
manager, the developer is shifting back to the residents the expenses it had
been funding all along.
General Manager Gary Moyer said it's a fact that residents sometimes don't
understand when they live in a community with a CDD. Harmony's district has been
active since 2000, state records show.
Moyer points to Harmony's streetlights as an example.
"The developer had been paying for all the street
lights," Moyer said. "In the early days . . . the developer is
subsidizing those expenses."
The district will spend $30,000 more on streetlights in the new budget, an
increase from about $303,000 to about $333,000.
The 2008 budget is "reflective of the work program that we expect for the
next year," Moyer said.
But some residents are still unhappy that they're paying for parts of the
community that's in the developmental stages. For instance, ponds are being
added to areas where there are few homes, adding $20,000 to the 2008 budget.
Recently, residents have been talking about the assessments on Internet message
boards.
"I think all the people on this board are asking for is a fair explanation
of . . . why we're paying for common areas in parts of the neighborhood that are
not inhabited by residents," one person wrote recently.
Moyer says residents have to look at it from the system's approach, just as he
says all government bodies do.
"You look at a community as a system," he said. "Maintenance of
all that infrastructure benefits everybody."
Now that the system is growing, somebody has to incur the extra costs of the
expansion and maintenance.
Some Harmony residents say the board is developer-centric: Since the developer
can appoint the supervisors early on, the board only pushes through what the
developer wants and not what residents want. They can end up feeling as if they
don't have a voice, even though one resident has been appointed to the
five-member board.
Moyer says the monthly district meetings "are very
open" and that all items are discussed.
It is customary for developers to appoint supervisors in the early stages of a
community.
Under rules that govern the districts, residents can be elected to the board
after there are a certain number of registered voters who live in a community.
That starts the board's conversion from developer-appointed supervisors to
resident-elected ones. In Harmony, two residents can run for election in
November 2008.
Harmony residents aren't alone when questioning the actions of their board.
Residents from across the state have had well-documented issues, some more
serious than others, with boards of supervisors.
The state Legislature made the districts possible in the 1980s to help shift the
burden of infrastructure from municipalities that were financially strapped
during Florida's population boom.
With 537 districts in Florida, 20 in Osceola County, it doesn't appear that
these districts or the issues that come with them are disappearing anytime soon.
"They are quite popular. They're a complicated tool, so it requires a lot
of hands-on management," said Jeff Jones, the county's smart-growth
director. "Osceola County, I think, has had quite a bit of success with
them."
Supporters of the districts say they help the county's tax base by creating
upscale communities and are a useful vehicle for funding infrastructure and
services in large developments.
Critics, though, contend that residents often aren't aware of the hidden costs
associated with them. The group Cyber Citizens For Justice Inc., which has
called for more state scrutiny, has dedicated part of its Web site to community
development districts and lists the state's various districts.
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