Residents and Business owners,
I would encourage you to read the fire readiness assessment study recently received by the Board of Fire Commissioners of the Iona McGregor Fire District.
Some background information is nescessary to provide insight as to why the District is seeking voter approval of a fire readiness assessment. Twenty seven years ago the District began using the value of property and a millage rate to fund the cost of the services delivered. Since this time the value of the property located in the District has proven to be inconsistent. Most recently the values of the District increased more than 100 percent in 6 years followed by a decline of more than 33 percent in the last 3 years. Based on the potential for further declines in revenue from further property declines the Board of Fire Commissioners considered two options. The first option was a millage increase. The second was to ask the voters if they would approve the adoption of a more stable and predictable source of revenue.
My recommendation to the Board of Fire Commissioners was for them to consider a flat fire assessment. The method, which is outlined in the Real Estate Research Consultants study, determines the portion of the entire budget that is directly attributed to the fixed cost of maintaining fire readiness to respond. In short the District will be able to demonstrate for the citizens the costs of having a well staffed, equipped and trained effective fire force ready to respond.
The assessment per parcel owner is based on the actual fixed cost of the readiness to respond. The assessment methodology is that all parcel owners will share equally in a portion of the fixed cost to maintain fire response readiness. Revenue generated from the fire assessment can only be used for fire readiness costs and cannot be used to fund the costs of our Advanced Life Support program which would continue to be funded from property taxes.
Although the ballot language for the August 24th primary election provides an amount of 185 dollars the Board of Fire Commisioners have set a preliminary not to exceed fire readiness assessment for the 2010/2011 fiscal year of 140 dollars. The balance of the budget is funded through property taxes although the millage rate is expected to be lower than the current rate of 2.3242 . The initial decision on the millage rate will be discussed at the tentative budget meeting on September 13th, 2010 at 6PM at our station 74 located on South Pointe Blvd.
I encourage you to attend our townhall meeting on July 27th at 630PM at the station descibed above to learn what the fire readiness assessment will mean to you and the Districts ability to continue providing an effective level of service.
If you have questions before the meeting or cannot attend I would be happy to explain the necessity of of adopting this stable, depenendable and equitable source of revenue.
Respectfully,
William Elliott
Fire Chief
433-0660