by Gordon Southern
There has been a lot of discussion lately about fire districts so I thought I would jump into the discussion. Fire Districts are political units formed for the sole purpose of providing fire protection for the people living in that district. Fire Districts are usually supported by local property taxes. The amount of tax is set by an elected board that is responsible for the operation of the district. Those tax rates are then reviewed by other agencies such as the Department of Local Government Finance and Tax Review Boards. The advantage to a Fire District is that everyone living in the district will be protected by the fire department(s). Another advantage is uniform taxation. The cost for this protection is the same for everyone in the district, which seems fair. Fire Districts can function by operating a professional fire department, all volunteer fire departments or some combination of both. Other advantages include one central dispatch, uniform training, one set of management and backup that is compatible. Also, one set of officials is responsible to the public, not many at different levels.
What are some of the disadvantages of fire districts? One disadvantage is the loss of local control. In a fire district decisions will be made at the district level not at the town or township level. Another problem is the loss of a sense of community where everyone came together to support the local volunteer fire department. One of the concerns for selected areas going into a fire district is that they may see a rise in their property taxes. Townships often time provide fire protection by paying a sum to a volunteer department of a nearby town fire department. Either way, the amount they pay is often less than the larger community with a professional fire fighting department.
The largest bridge to cross often times is the move to parity in cost for fire protection. Some areas may pay less others may need to pay more. As painfully as this is, overtime it is a necessity or the fire district will fail. Sometimes this move to parity is scheduled to take place over a number of years. Other times the pain is gotten over with by going to immediate parity.
In Cass County we have a hodge-podge of fire protection districts and methods. Currently we have excellent volunteer fire departments in Walton, Galveston, Royal Center, New Waverly and Twelve Mile. We have a professional fire department in Logansport. Other areas of the county have no fire department but contract with either Logansport or the volunteer departments or both. At one time there might have been a real concern about calling the correct department if you had a fire. That is no longer the case. Even before central dispatch most of the fire departments in the county worked together.
The issue today is mostly about the cost for fire protection and who is going to pay it. The city of Logansport is concerned about providing fire protection to townships via contracts at a lower cost than it is providing fire protection for its citizens and businesses. The townships are concerned about raising taxes during a recession in order to pay for their fire protection.
Let’s hope that cooler heads prevail and something is worked out. All of our citizens need the protection of a well trained fire department that can arrive at our home or place of business quickly. Here are some possible solutions I see to the problem.
A Fire District could be set up including the City of Logansport and any interested townships. A single board could be elected by the people living in the district to operate this Fire District. This board would take ownership of all existing fire fighting equipment and staff in the district. In any given year, the tax rate for fire protection in any part of the district could not increase more than doubling. This would continue until parity is reached for all parts of the district. A time limit of perhaps five years could be set for this to take place. At the end of five years everyone in the district would be paying the same tax rate.
A second option would be to make the whole county one fire district. This would do the most to get rates at a parity with in the county. The county fire district would have an elected board that would control all aspects of fire safety including supervision of both volunteer and professional fire departments in the county. This board would then control tax rates, set policy, and determine how the fire departments would operate. This would cause a loss of local control but might provide for better training and better use of tax dollars in a streamlined operation.
The biggest difference in these two options is how widely the cost of fire protection will be spread in order to keep the cost to any one individual as low as possible. What isn’t possible it seems is to continue as we are. I’m not sure what is best. What do you think?
• Gordon Southern is a columnist for the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached through the newspaper at ptnews@pharostribune.com.
