"A legislatively-sanctioned license to steal"
From a powerful story from Suncoast Searchlight : Dozens of new local governments, led not by mayors or town managers but instead by businesses profiting from those who live there, have sprouted up across the Suncoast along with the sprawling new housing communities they bring. The real estate developers behind these independent special districts use their government status to float multimillion-dollar, tax-free bonds to finance construction and dictate how homeowners pay it back — all with no reins on the spending, a Suncoast Searchlight investigation has found. These districts now span the entire region — from Parrish’s 40-acre Rye Crossing district in northern Manatee County to the more than 12,000 acres at the West Villages district in southern Sarasota County . Community development districts “are a legislatively-sanctioned license to steal” . . . “The bottom line on CDDs, if you look at them, they’re a powderkeg for the homeowner, who is paying for th...