Joe Gorman is still amazed. 

In the 1990s, the developer of his Sumter County community, the Villages, wanted to unload a lot of property, including the golf course and some retention ponds. 

The assets were appraised at $8.8-million, Gorman said. But they fetched a higher price from the Villages Center Community Development District. Much higher: $84-million. 

"Everybody said, 'My gosh, what is going on over here?' " he recalled. 

Homeowners in the Village became responsible for the debt. Although some 30,000 homeowners share costs, their tax district payments have climbed to $105 a month. 

Gorman, who is working to change the two-decade-old law that created these taxing districts known as CDDs, blames the land deal for the tax increase. 

He believes things might have turned out differently if homeowners had been given a greater voice on the CDD. 

And although most lawmakers are slow to share his outrage, Pasco-based Rep. Ken Littlefield has agreed to make these ever-popular tax districts an issue in this year's session. 

More and more CDDs are popping up in Littlefield's district, such as New Tampa, which lies on its border, and in other parts of Hillsborough County, such as Keystone and the Apollo Beach area. 

Under state law, developers can form these districts to issue tax-free bonds that finance their subdivisions, instead of providing all the development money up front. 

In return, homeowners are supposed to receive lower-priced homes and, in many cases, upper-end amenities such as golf courses and fancy swimming pools. 

But the rules allow the developer to select a majority of CDD board members for the first eight years. In the meantime, residents have little power over the debts they must repay. 

Frustrated by those rules, Gorman and other critics are pushing for reforms they say would make CDDs more democratic and less open to abuse. Hillsborough County alone has 18 CDDs. Statewide there are more than 150. 

Interesting lawmakers in sponsoring legislation hasn't been easy, said Gorman, who is president of the Property Owners Association of the Villages. 

His group is working with Cyber Citizens for Justice (www.ccfj.net/) based in St. Augustine and the Florida Silver-Haired Legislature (www.fshl.org) out of Cocoa. So far, they haven't had any takers, and with the legislative session about to begin, Gorman and others are not banking on success this year. 

But Littlefield, a Republican who heads the Hillsborough County Legislative Delegation, said he will seek ways to address CDD issues with the Department of Community Affairs. 

Under reforms sought by the citizens coalition, homeowners would qualify sooner for seats on CDD boards. 

Any time a CDD wanted to make a purchase valued at more than $3-million within a given year, as happened at the Villages, it would need three appraisals and approval from homeowners. 

In addition, CDD members would be subject to tougher Sunshine Law provisions. 

Littlefield said he is familiar with those complaints, particularly about the lack of homeowner representation. 

He hopes to address other failings as well: CDDs that do not differentiate between their tax assessments and homeowner association fees, improper use of impact fee credits from local governments and tax money used to pay penalties that the developers incur. He also will look into the law that restricts CDDs from enforcing deed restrictions, a job that is now left to the homeowner associations. 

"I don't know that all the representatives are aware of it," he said, cautioning that developers may oppose reforms. "I am going to file something." What he files might not satisfy longtime critics of CDDs, including Bob Doran of Tampa Palms. Doran, a onetime member of his CDD board, said the law cannot be fixed and should be abolished. 

"This statute is Florida's dirty little secret," he said. "I felt after getting deeply involved, it was a fraud, a fraud sponsored by the state of Florida on its citizens."