County burns midnight oil-fire assessment hangs in balance

After two hours of public comment Tuesday on the county’s proposed fire assessment fee, one resigned resident said, “Everything’s been said.”

Apparently, that was not the case, as the comments keep coming for another two hours, followed by two more hours of debate among the commissioners.

On Wednesday morning, at 12:34 a.m., the meeting, which had started at 5 p.m. adjourned, with the assessment, many had viewed as done deal, hanging in the balance and an increase in the millage rate once again under consideration.

The commission voted 3-2 to direct the staff to prepare the budget for two different scenarios – a raise to the maximum millage rate that needs a unanimous decision, and a raise to a lower millage rate that requires a supermajority, or four out of the five votes. The commission also deferred action on the assessment until the July 13 meeting.

About 40 county residents spoke on the issue, many going well over the allotted three minutes, and nearly all bashed the assessment as unfair.

Residents came prepared with accounts of the unaffordable jumps in rates they would be subject to under the assessment.

Many of those who spoke were like Linda Warrington, a senior citizen living on a fixed income and facing a doubling of their fire assessment rates.

Warrington, a Micanopy resident, has lived in the same house for more than 50 years. She’s seen her property taxes rise from $50 in 1957 to more than $2,000 today.

The reason the price under the proposed assessment would be so much higher for residents like Warrington is due to the way it’s calculated.

Under the current system, the Municipal Services Taxing Unit, or MSTU, the rate is based on the assessed value of the house. For residents like Warrington that assessed value is even lower than its actual value due to exemptions like the Homestead Exemption and the Save Our Homes Exemption.

The proposed assessment is based not on assessed value but on square footage, hazard level of the building and whether the building is urban or rural. Also, none of the aforementioned exemptions are factored into the rate. This means fewer people are exempt, creating a wider, more stable revenue stream.

It also shifts the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class and the poor, argued county Commissioner Mike Byerly, the one commissioner who came out against the assessment early on.

Byerly said the assessment creates winners and losers, and it significantly increases taxes for only one sector of the government, at the detriment to others.

“It substitutes a new set of problems for the old ones,” Bylerly said.

Business owners also spoke against the assessment.

Sally Goforth said rates on her mini-storage business would jump from $737.12 to $6,382 under the assessment. Goforth said the government should have to tighten its belt the same way she as a business owner does, a sentiment echoed by many other business owners in attendance.

Others in attendance asked the county to make the sacrifices that private citizens were already making.

“If you can’t afford steak, eat chicken. And right now, it’s chicken-eating time,” said Steve Moody, resident and owner of several properties in the county.

Comments like this and many others throughout the night were met with applause, which County Commission Chairwoman Cynthia Chestnut warned those in attendance not to do before the meeting. Still, applause broke out several times, prompting Chestnut to pound her gavel and settle down the room.

Director of Public Safety Ed Bailey assured residents that the fire department was already making sacrifices.

“We’re already through the flesh and down to the bone,” Bailey said. “Anything else goes, we’re going to joints.”

Bailey said the department has already undergone a 7.5 percent reduction for the current year, and even with a modest increase in the MSTU, the department would be short about $833,000. That translates into taking two fire engines off the road, Bailey said.

Commissioner Rodney Long was the strongest proponent of the assessment on the commission.

Commissioners resolved to come to some conclusion before adjourning, twice pushing the time limit to 12:30 a.m. and then again to 1 a.m.

The commission did reach a conclusion, but did not make a final decision about how it would fund fire services.

Whatever action is taken regarding the millage rate or the assessment in future meetings, it will have a strong impact on Hawthorne, Waldo and Archer – the three cities that signed on for the assessment on the assumption that it would pass. If the assessment does die, the rates in those three cities will be tied to the MSTU.

Alachua also agreed to the assessment but not to the MSTU, so the city will still have to work out a deal with the county to pay for fire services for the upcoming year.

Newberry, Lacrosse, Micanopy and High Springs all have fire departments and previously worked out agreements with the county to be paid for calls made out of city limits and into other cities or unincorporated area.

High Springs City Manager Jim Drumm said the county and the city have an agreement, but the county has yet to give final approval. He said the county could still reject the contract and the negotiation process would be reopened.

He said the contract was not contingent on the assessment passing. The county can always back out of the contract, if it’s unable to make the payments for the city’s department to cover outside of the city limits, Drumm said.

A night that started as the final meeting to resolve a process that has lasted several months is now left open with loose ends.