Forum offers perspective on fire territories

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November 13, 2009

Anonymous Pharos-Tribune Fri Nov 13, 2009, 09:01 AM EST

Thanks to the League of Women Voters of Cass County, local residents might have a better idea of the impact a fire territory would have locally.

The league staged a forum this week and invited Peru Mayor Jim Walker to discuss his city’s experience.

“Quite honestly, when we looked at the fire department budget in Peru, we knew we needed to make some changes,” Walker told those gathered for the session. “We have new revenue, and it’s saving jobs.”

What a fire territory does, he said, is to spread the cost of operating a fire department over a wider area. The result is a lower burden on city taxpayers and a somewhat higher burden on residents of the surrounding area.

Logansport is discussing a fire territory that would take in Eel, Clay, Noble and Washington townships. A consulting firm is now in the process of calculating the impact on tax rates.

Under the current arrangement, Washington Township property owners pay a fire tax rate of about seven cents per $100 of assessed value, providing a total of about $48,000 to the fire department.

That number would certainly go up with a fire territory.

In Peru’s case, Peru Township had a tax rate for fire protection of eight cents for every $100 of assessed value. This year, after formation of a fire territory, that rate had risen to 72 cents.

Walker admitted there had been a jump in the fire tax rate for those outside the city, but he noted that the city budget had actually dropped because fire department expenses have been moved to the fire territory budget.

“It balances out overall for the taxpayers,” he said.

For those in surrounding townships, the argument in favor of a fire territory is that a full-time fire crew can respond faster than a crew made up of volunteers.

The argument against the territory is strictly financial. Critics note that a farmer, for example, would be paying that higher tax rate not just on a house and outbuildings but on acres of crops and pasture.

In the end, city officials say, it will come down to a choice for surrounding townships: Pay the higher tax rate or lose the fire protection provided by the city.

The choice the townships make will determine the size of fire department the city of Logansport will be able to maintain.

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