Alachua fire services in limbo

County fire assessment fizzles

Faced with the options of raising taxes or reducing services when setting the portion of the property taxes that funds fire services, the county commission took a middle road Tuesday, moving toward doing a little of each to stave off massive cuts or massive tax hikes.

In better economic times, with property values rising, merely keeping the property tax rates the same would create an increase in revenue, but these are not better economic times.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the commission axed the proposed enhanced fire assessment fee, which the county had been working on since last October, and opted to increase the millage rate for property taxes.

The fire assessment was a municipal services benefit unit (MSBU) not calculated on the value of a property, but a flat rate based on its square footage or other factors.  The net result is that under an MSBU, all property owners would contribute to the fund, including those that due to homestead exemptions might otherwise not be subject to property taxes.

The enhanced fire assessment, on which the county already spent nearly $200,000 in the form of an assessment study and mailing notices, failed to regain the necessary support after taking a beating at the June 22 public hearing.

County homeowners and business owners berated the commission for nearly four hours – many saying their taxes for fire would double or triple.

As the meeting wore on, commissioners Lee Pinkoson and Cynthia Chestnut renounced their support for the enhanced fire assessment, leaving only commissioners Paula DeLaney and Rodney Long in favor of it.

The assessment would have raised $7.3 million, which would have been adequate revenue to fully fund fire services.

Instead, the county set the millage rate cap at 1.3391 mills, which it will vote on for final approval in September. The tax hike is not as drastic as the fire assessment, but it also falls about $840,000 short of fully funding the fire department. Staff estimated that if the commission does not raise the millage over last year’s rate, the county would have to cut 60 positions, 20 of which are reportedly unfilled at this time.

The millage rate for the current year is 1.18 mills. The jump to 1.3391 would be a 14 percent increase in the part of the property taxes that funds fire services, which is only a small part of the total property taxes.

At a July 6 meeting, Ed Bailey, director of public safety, made a list of proposed cuts to save the $840,000 and was able to do so by reducing recruiting and training programs but still retaining all fire engines and firefighter jobs.

The commission considered, but voted against, raising the millage rate 28 percent to 1.51 mills. It would have been a much more drastic tax increase but would have also kept the fire department from making any cuts.   

City of Alachua still faces decision on fire services

With the assessment failing to gain the necessary support, the City of Alachua finds itself as the only municipality in the county left out of the picture for the time being.

Waldo, Hawthorne and Archer all agreed to be part of a municipal services taxing unit (MSTU) for fire services.  An MSTU is a taxing unit levied on property to cover the cost of providing a specific service and is based on the value of the property.  Meanwhile, Micanopy, LaCrosse, Newberry, Gainesville and High Springs all have their own fire departments.

Alachua had agreed to the fire assessment, but not the MSTU for fire services. Now, the city will have the opportunity to opt in or renegotiate its contract with the county.

Alachua Commissioners had hoped that the assessment would pass because it would have meant a savings of about $200,000 for the city’s taxpayers. The city currently has a contract for roughly $600,000 with the county for fire services. Under the deal with the fire assessment, that would have dropped to about $400,000.

County Manager Randall Reid claimed that his office received a call from the City of Alachua Tuesday morning expressing an interest in adopting the MSTU for fire services.  City of Alachua Assistant City Manager Danielle Judd responded, however, that the commission had not discussed the MSTU and it had no consensus on the matter.

City of Alachua Commissioner Ben Boukari, Jr. spoke at a prior county commission meeting saying if the assessment failed, he expected a renegotiated contract to be about $200,000 less than in prior years.  Boukari said he wouldn’t be interested in paying more under a contract than would have been raised by the fire assessment which was expected to bring in about $400,000 to the county. 

If Alachua joins the MSTU on fire services, that number jumps up to about $960,000 according to county staff. Judd said at Tuesday’s meeting that Alachua will discuss the option of joining the MSTU at an upcoming meeting.

County commissioners, however, expressed concern that Alachua would not be willing to approve such an increase in taxes.  The City of Alachua’s current contract for fire services expires Sept. 30.