Bayshore fire assessment back on the ballot
After soundly rejecting a proposal in the June special election, voters will consider a modified Bayshore fire assessment Nov. 4.
This go-around the district hopes the numbers will be a little more palatable for voters.
The fire district reduced the proposed assessment to 70 percent of the original value which, if passed, would allow Fire Chief Larry Nisbet to rehire three of the six firefighters laid off in September in advance of the new budget year which began Oct. 1.
On Tuesday, the firehouse on Nalle Road held an open house where people could express their feelings to the fire chief and commissioners.
Unlike in May, where virtually everyone expressed disapproval of the assessment, many who came to the station this go around voiced approval.
Farrell Smith said the firefighers are a big help and should be supported, regardless of the cost.
“We’re on rental property. Even if I owned it, the importance of these men is more important,” Smith said. “Everything goes up and it has to be supported somehow.”
Conversely, Roy Lietz said the economy is still rough, but when it finally comes around, the influx of new construction should help pay for services.
“It’s tough sledding out there. Everybody has to tighten their belt. And nobody died as a result of it,” Lietz said. “Things will turn around. You’ll have more single-family homes.”
Originally, the fixed cost per dwelling was proposed at $587.78 annually, regardless of the value of the property. Commercial land would have been assessed at 51 cents per square foot, institutional properties (churches, etc) at $1.26, industrial warehouse at 5 cents and vacant and agricultural land will be assessed at $63.97 per acres, capped at 10 acres.
“The amount was a lot. I think this will be a little more palatable. We weren’t asking for what we didn’t need,” Nisbet said.
On Nov. 4, those numbers will be reduced to roughly 70 percent of that, Nisbet said.
A single-family home would be assessed at $412, commercial land and institutional properties would be assessed at 36 cents per square foot, industrial warehouse at 3 cents and vacant and agricultural land would be assessed at $12.82 per acre with no cap.
During the June 24 special election, voters spoke loud and clear, rejecting the assessment by a nearly 3 to 1 margin. Voters said the assessment was not evenly distributed and that some residents would see their fire service expense triple, many of whom could not afford it.
They also worried that once the millage was zero, there was nothing stopping the fire district from jacking rates up higher, since the property owners would have no more say.
Nisbet said that was not the case.
“Many have that misconception that this will be added to their taxes, which is not the case,” Nisbet said. “The plan is to lower the ad valorem to zero and use the assessment to fund the department.”
On Sept. 14, as predicted if the summer proposal failed, Nisbet was forced to lay off six firefighters. The ISO has indicated it will do an inspection in November, but Nisbet said he hopes to put it off until January.
Nisbet said the district is working on obtaining grants. It recently culled a $121,000 grant to replace all 18 of their air packs. The district is still working on SAFER grants, but the process won’t take place until January and there’s no guarantee of success.
“The air packs were coming down the pike and we had to deal with it. The average cost of an air pack is $6,500,” Nisbet said.
Nisbet said that Bayshore, like many other fire districts, is looking to move away from the ad valorem methodology, where residents in the district are charged $3.50 per $1,000 of taxable value for fire service.
Since 2008, property values are down more than 40 percent, which has taken a huge slice out of the budget and forced the district to run the department on reserves and federal grants, both of which have run out.
Even if property values skyrocket, homesteaded properties would only go up 3 percent annually from a tax perspective, Nisbet said.
For the assessment, the district used the historical demand methodology, in which the department went back two years to see where most of the calls for service were. Most (74 percent) were residential.