Fire officials wary of possible tax cap change
Originally published Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 12:01 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 9:06 a.m.
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CORRECTION: References to Proposition B were incorrect in the original story. The story below has been corrected.
FAIRBANKS — Local fire officials are saying they fear that tightening the borough tax cap, as a voter initiative will seek to do Oct. 7, could hurt their ability to plan for the future.
The change in tax cap laws — proposed through Proposition B on the upcoming ballot — promises to shave property taxes in the long run if the community continues to add people, as it has consistently in recent decades.
According to borough officials, it also would affect neighborhood-level volunteer fire departments and road-service areas.
Each of those entities — five volunteer fire departments and more than 100 road-service areas — are managed by their own individual tax cap.
Because a change in laws governing the larger tax cap under Proposition B also would tighten revenues for individual service areas, neighborhood commissioners for those service areas are starting to cast a wary eye on the Oct. 7 election.
Dave Nebert, the commission chairman for the Steese Area Volunteer Fire Department, said the proposal would hamstring the leaders of fire departments whose service area populations are growing.
He said it would leave department commissioners and directors, assuming they wanted to respond to growing populations by improving service, with little option but to ask property owners directly to tweak the service area’s tax cap for more money — an effort he said can be a hard sell.
Nebert’s neighbors in the Steese service area raised taxes a few years ago to fund a three-year improvement plan that, this December, will result in an improved fire-protection rating and lower insurance bills for many homeowners.
Nebert said the proposition — which would guarantee tax bills would go down if a service area adds new construction — would look tempting to voters but could make it harder for fire departments to improve services.
“We’re not going to be an ISO 5 anymore if we can’t keep up our response capabilities,” he said, referring to the department’s new rating by the national fire risk information service ISO.
Mark Simpson, a battalion chief and president of the board at the Ester Volunteer Fire Department, said the community’s volunteer departments have collectively improved training, fire-preparedness levels, staffing and equipment in a way that would have been impossible had the proposition’s proposed change been in place a decade ago.
“We’d be providing a level of service that I think the current population would find unacceptable,” Simpson said.
Simpson acknowledged some voters will view Proposition B as a way to “slow the growth of government” but said there are better ways to control government than by limiting spending on public safety.
“That’s not the way you do it,” he said.
Directors for Chena-Goldstream Fire and Rescue say the proposed measure would restrict their ability to serve their 80-square-mile service district, which runs north and west of the city of Fairbanks.
They said it also threatens to reverse improvements to response time and service — a reverse that could, in the long run, mean higher insurance bills for many of the 8,700 residents within their district.
National fire risk-information officials, through the ISO, have in recent years assigned stronger fire-protection ratings within three-quarters of the Chena-Goldstream department’s boundaries, a move the department’s directors estimate cut homeowner insurance rates between 25 and 45 percent.
Chena-Goldstream board president David Rohwer said directors focus on a dual mission: position stations and improve resources to ensure firefighters cover the service area efficiently and demonstrate that efficiency to fire-protection authorities.
Rohwer said the same type of success would have been difficult to impossible if fire service areas’ revenue had fallen under the tighter revenue rules proposed under Proposition B.
“The assumption is if we have a flatline budget going forward, one not indexed to growth, that we won’t be able to provide the level of service we do now,” he said.
Community Discussion
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I think it's important that the fire departments be able to maintain their lower insurance ratings. If they cap the taxes, but insurance rates go up no one is going to be saving money anyway.
However, I think the threat of a tax cap could do some good. The initiative should be changed so that any department that can't pass an extensive review would be capped. That way maybe certain departments would hire qualified paid staff, and their Fire Chief wouldn't allow a paid staff with expired EMT certification to continue to treat patients.
Just to prevent any accusations of libel on my part, both of my above statements can be corroborated with a few phone calls to the right people in the State EMS office and with the Borough. If anyone really wants to fact check what I've said, e-mail me through my profile and I'll give you names and numbers.
If a department is using un-certified personnel to do medical treatment, and you have proof, then it will probably come out in the wash. Each department has a physician sponsor whose license could be on the line if procedures aren't being followed. It's in their interest to see that the department does follow their medical standing orders.
But adding "extensive review" clauses to a tax cap, whatever the agency being targeted, would only add a layer of bureaucracy that would mitigate or negate any savings it's supposed to bring about. The tax cap's beauty, as a matter of law, is its simplicity. Usually, the simpler the law, the less it costs to implement.
If your, so far vague, allegations are true, then more power to you in correcting whatever department is violating procedures.
If, instead, you are someone who has sour grapes taking vague pot shots at fire departments, then shame on you.
Let's see if I got this right. If a house is built next door to me then the fire department is going to need more money in case it starts fire?
How exactly are their expenses increased? Is it a fuel surcharge to go an extra 100 yards? Is it the cost to add the address to the map book? Please do tell.
It costs so much to have a fire department and equipment and they can serve 1100 people just as easily as 1000 people. I agree that if a rural area becomes a metro area that more equipment is needed, but we are talking about a very slow growth rate that does not require massive budget increases year over year.
Scare tactics and predictions of cloom and dome,to fight a worthwhile
change in the Borough JUST LIKE WITH THE I.M.a few years ago ! Outright lies and mis-truths by the Borough, while spending OUR TAX money to fight it's own citizens! How bad can this get?
cloom and dome? wasat?
I agree with FBKS GAS..
It would be cheaper to do away with fire depts and insurance all
together.
Do the math, take the expense of a fire dept and what folks pay in for insurance. We can rebuild what burns down every year and and save money.
I like the idea of opting out of both insurance and fire dept coverage.
Or privatized fire departments, If you have a fire, and your visa card clears we will be there.
What are people supposed to do for Ambulance service if there is no fire department? They will still need staffing, training and equipment in order to run an ambulance.
Who is this "we" you speak of? Is that "we" as a community? Because if so, "we" already do rebuild what burns down through insurance.
1100 houses will typically result in 10% more ambulance and fire calls if you just follow the math. Likely even more in terms of car wrecks.
The cost of energy and heating for those fire departments is going up too. They operate 24 hours and are already short of money & staff.
Starting to think that variable sales tax was not such a bad idea...
Fairbanksgas: It isn't the cost increase of the new home next to you, it's the cost increase of the 10, or 20, or 50, or more new homes and buildings in a fire district which are spread all over the place and are all miles away from your home. Need an example? Look at Chena Hills subdivision. Over the last 5-10 years, there 100's of new homes in that area, and it's just one of many areas in the borough that have seen that type of growth. Every fire district in the borough has one or more areas within it's boundaries that are growing like that.
If Prob B was in place at the time, it would have limited the growth of those F.D's budgets to the rate of inflation, which would not be anywhere near enough for them to account for the increased costs of providing service to all of those new homes and businesses.
New residents and buildings equates to an increase in call volume, because people get sick and they have accidents. When you're responding to those calls with predominantly volunteers, there's only so many calls volunteers can go on before it starts affecting the rest of their lives. When that happens, something has to give, and in 99.9% of the cases, they give less time to volunteering at the fire dept.
The average volunteer firefighter lasts for 2-4 years before they give it up. There are of course exceptions, but poll any local volunteer F.D. Fire Chief and they will tell you that recruitment and retention of volunteers is one of their biggest areas of concern and concentration.
Virtually all of the local volunteer F.D.'s have been adding or trying to add a few more full time paid staff to enhance what they're able to do with their volunteer forces. The quicker the fire truck or ambulance leaves the fire station, the quicker it arrives at the scene of the emergency and can start the process of mitigating the emergency. It's the addition of the paid staff and the lowering of response times that has had an impact on lowering ISO ratings and insurance rates. It obviously takes longer to respond an emergency vehicle when the volunteer has to leave from home, respond to the station, move their gear to the emergency vehicle and then respond it to the emergency. That's a lot of additional minutes in almost any emergency for the situation to grow and/or get worse.
Believe me when I say you don't want them to have to take that additional time when it's you, your family, your home, your business or your livelihood that's on the line.
Some will attempt to minimize or dismiss what I said by calling it a scare tactic. But after 21+ years in the local fire service I know the fact of the matter is it's reality.
"He said it would leave department commissioners and directors, assuming they wanted to respond to growing populations by improving service, with little option but to ask property owners directly to tweak the service area’s tax cap for more money — an effort he said can be a hard sell."
Why should residents in area X pay for services provided to area Y? If the residents in area Y want more or different services than the residents in area X, they should pay for them.
"Simpson acknowledged some voters will view Proposition B as a way to “slow the growth of government” but said there are better ways to control government than by limiting spending on public safety."
Mr. Simpson fails to address exactly how government should then be "controlled". I wish he would have expanded his remarks.
Mr. Simpson probably did give some ideas, but the News Miner chose to not publish them. Some things involve consolidation of gov. entities, privatization of other areas of the Borough (such as the fire service has been), and a total review and transition to a meaner, leaner Borough Govt.
I just will never know why taxes are such an evil. They provide for essential services, education, parks, etc. If stewardship of our tax dollars was better, maybe the folks on this Blog and elsewhere would not be so outraged by the three letter word. If I were king for a day, the better way to provide the same services at less burden is to take the burden off the property owners and place some of it on consumers. Military, tourist, non-resident workers, all use our services, but pay little to none of the cost. A sales tax would spread the burden much better.
Let's take an example: Let's say that all 80,000 people in the FNSB received the full dividend and let's say that 50% of that money was spent in local stores. If a measly 3% sales tax were in place, the FNSB could have raised over $3million. That is equal to the total budgets for all the VFD's combined!!!!
And to speak of eliminating fire departments....where does that come from?? Good grief, do the tax payers of Fairbanks really want that...to be a third world country? The trained volunteers save property, lives, your economic, social, physical well being for pennies on the dollar.
Oh...as far as accredidation or meeting certain levels of certification, all of the VFD's now meet a national standard for Insurance Rating of at least a 6 or better. That is very good considering none of the departments have fire hydrants in most areas of their districts.
Good post duramax.
I live in one of the fire service area's that has received a lower rating in the last year. I own property valued by the borough at about $175,000 and paid about $2400 in homeowners insurance. Because of the lower ISO rating that was achieved my insurance went down about $800 a year. How much in taxes is prop B going to save me? a couple hundred? It's not worth the risk to mess with the system, and definitely worth the taxes I think.
What people don't realize is the amount of ems calls that get responded to daily by every volunteer dept by paid and volunteer staff. If budgets get cut areas will shut down stations that they can no longer afford to heat or up keep. So if the 1 or 2 people on duty at the main station are responding to a ems call and you call because you see smoke in your or your neighbors house any volunteering firefighter that has to go get the fire engine may have to drive another 10 minutes to get to your house which can be the differance between saving all the memories in your house or you standing looking at rubble with nothing but what your wearing... The same could be said about ems calls where every second could save your life.
"Do the math, take the expense of a fire dept and what folks pay in for insurance. We can rebuild what burns down every year and save money" Your house and every thing in it burns down, catches the trees on fire, burns down your neighbors house kills his sleeping baby and on and on. doing the math it looks mighty expensive.
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