New Fire System

For decades there was a local fire board system. I supported that system with its local representatives setting the direction for that area. I would have modified the system by having the board members run in November elections, approve their own budgets and setting their fire fee or millage (their choice), consolidate a few districts and put in minimum standards in places in each of the districts to insure adequate service in all areas.

Years ago the council majority scrapped that structure eliminating all the boards and individual department chiefs, folding all budgets into one, taking over ownership of the buildings, equipment, assets and cash, and putting all departments under the control of the administration. Additionally, there was a change from charging a fire fee on your house to charging a fire property tax on all your property — house, second home, rental home, vehicles, motorcycles, RVs, vacant land, businesses and business equipment.

Here are the annual spending numbers for the county fire system. 2016: $4.6 million, 2018: $5.4 million, 2020: $6.5 million, 2022: $7.9 million, and next year a whopping increase to $10.2 million in fire spending. All along, and some councilmen continue to say these changes are “revenue neutral”. Untrue, as those numbers show. There have been many fire tax increases along the way.

For example in 2016, the county council charged $53 per house in Central. It then raised the fee to $73. Then it was raised to $90 on smaller homes up to $230 on the largest ones. This year the fee on homes was eliminated, but they’ll add a 20 mill property tax on all your property.

Most of the rural districts look like this, another for example, Dacusville was $65 per home in 2016. It went to $98 per home in 2017. Then $90 to $230. This year, like all districts there will be a fire millage property tax on all your property.

Basically what is going on with this latest change is a shift from a fire fee on your home only to a property tax on all your property. They say it is revenue neutral. OK, assuming that is true, about half will pay more for fire service and about half will pay less. To only focus on those paying less and say the council cut taxes, while half are paying more taxes and not mentioning that, is very disingenuous.

By the way, fire spending at $10.2 million annually is the second biggest expense in the county budget. (Sheriff’s office is first at $16.7 million.) Fire does 550 calls a year where there is an actual fire. EMS does about 18,600 medical calls on a budget of $6.8 million. I thought EMS was the higher priority.

The Vineyards goes from 51 mills to 20 mills. How does the math work on that? Last year they collected $867,000 (51 mills x $17,000 per mill per area = $867,000). Next year 20 mills x $17,000 per mill = $340,000 in revenue. How do you fund their $867,000 budget? Do you decide to subsidize it from the other areas? Or do you cut their budget?

In the end, you can’t subsidize the Vineyards forever because Holly Springs is now paying what everyone else is paying and their service is 1/10th of the Vineyards. At some point everyone moves to the center and that is what happens (sadly) in these centralized systems.

As I mentioned the individual departments are gone, consolidated under the county administration. The title of the buildings, equipment, furniture, vehicles, computers, and everything owned by the individual departments has been and is being transferred to the administration. The budget under the new system is created by the county administration (individual boards proposed budgets in the past). The fire departments had their own fire rates that their own boards recommended and most always approved. Now millage is being forced on everyone and that rate is being dictated to them. Each department had individual cash balances they accumulated, and now they are gone, absorbed into the general account. Their individual debts have been absorbed by the general account. In the financial aspect the individual departments have completely disappeared.

When the local boards were disbanded and the board members were let go, the Emergency Services Board was formed. It is an advisory board in every sense of the word. I went to a million fire board meetings and those individual boards with their chiefs set the direction and ran those departments. I liked the local control.

The names on the uniforms now have the Pickens Fire District patch. I don’t think the names of the trucks are changing (yet), but this ordinance says the county can change them at any time. Any employee from any department can be moved from one station to another. They are not tied to a department, but work for the centralized system.

I was not on the council when the first step was taken to consolidate the fire departments, but I do remember a lot of push back by fire board members, the fire chiefs and some of the volunteers. I think the transition was inch by inch to keep the resistance low — kind of like the frog in the boiling water. I don’t like that style of governing. I’d rather say, here is the problem, here is the direction and complete plan, so everyone knows everything up front.

When I cast my “No” vote, I was also looking at the bigger picture too. In two years now, county property tax millage is rising from 57 mills to 87 mills. First was the 10 mill increase this past year when the $20 road fee on the cars was eliminated, resulting in a record tax hike of $3.5 million.

This year the council will raise millage another 20 mills as they shift from fire fees on homes to a fire millage on all property. Once again, they are saying this shift will be revenue neutral, but I have my doubts.

So on October 1 when you get the tax bill on your motorcycle and a fire fee has been added to it, that will make about as much sense as you paying a sewer tax when your home is on septic tank. I don’t support any of this, and it’s why I voted “No” on the 2022-23 budget.