Fire District hopes to triple tax cap

With eight new hires last month, the Golden Gate Fire & Rescue District brought on the largest group of new employees in its 23-year history, but fire officials contend it’s going to take a tax increase to bring on the 54 new hires needed.

“It’s not a pie in the sky request,” Fire Chief Don Peterson says of that number. “The need is based on existing population, existing calls for service and existing types of buildings... we have to protect. As a stand alone just based on ISO (Insurance Services Office), not including other factors, 54 is the starting point.”

This year’s eight hires accounted for approximately $420,000 of the District’s $15.5 million budget. Tax revenues totaled $5.9 million in 2004-05, an increase of $1.2 million. Of those revenues, $3 million went to salaries for the district’s 60 employees, 15 administrative and 45 on shift.

Based on the district’s figures of $60,000 per new hire, Golden Gate would need an additional $3.2 million to add 54 more firefighters.

To address funding, officials plan to go to the voters to raise the current tax cap from 1 mil to 3 mil. The district has made three unsuccessful attempts to raise the millage rate in the past. This time, they plan to present their case based on a study by Fraser & Mohlke Associates.

Commissioned by the fire board, the $20,000-plus study will provide an extensive 5, 10 and 20-year overview including future projections regarding population, residential and commercial construction, and transportation figures.

Estates resident and former GGFRD commissioner Mark Strain calls the proposed tax increase, “hogwash.”

“Their property tax income last year was nearly 20 percent higher than the year before and now they want to be able to arbitrarily raise our property tax base by two more mils?” he questions. “Fire departments have benefited with increases in ad valorem taxes through increased property values and impact fees. Instead of seeing more dollars spent on tailored surveys to produce a predetermined outcome we should be seeing better money management.”

Peterson says, the district’s millage rate has been capped at 1 mil since the District was formed in 1983, yet the district’s needs have grown beyond the cap. East Naples’ millage rate is 1.5 mil; North Naples, 1 mil; and Big Corkscrew Island, 2 mil.

Property owners in the Golden Gate Fire & Rescue District currently pay $275 a year for fire services based on a $300,000 property with homestead exemption. If approved by voters, the yearly payment could rise to $825 if the full cap were implemented. If increased by half a mil, the yearly payment on the same $300,000 home would be just over $400.

Although they have yet to confirm a specific increase, Peterson says it is very unlikely the district would implement the full 3 mil.

Strain says he doesn’t buy it.

“If they have the opportunity, as history clearly shows, they will spend every dime regardless of whether it is needed or not,” he says. “It is time taxpayers were provided with a reduction in taxes not an increase.”

The proposed tax increase follows on the heels of an impact fee increase recently approved by Golden Gate Fire Commissioners. Impact fees are monies paid by new construction to offset growth. The fees can be used to finance new equipment and stations only and not personnel.

A comparison of staffing and hiring at other independent fire and rescue districts shows:

• East Naples Fire & Rescue District - added two new employees in 2006, bringing their numbers to 102 staff members, 62 on shift and 40 administrative.

• North Naples Fire & Rescue District hired 18 new positions this year, for a total of 147 employees, 127 on shift and 20 administrative positions.

• Big Corkscrew Island Fire & Rescue did not add any firefighters to its 19-member staff, which includes 15 on shift.