Both the Dunklin and the Hillsboro fire protection districts are once again asking their voters to approve tax measures when they go to the polls on April 5.
The Dunklin Fire Protection District is trying again for separate tax increases to improve services and to improve the district’s pension fund.
Dunklin Fire district voters turned thumbs-down to similar proposals in June 2020 and April 2019.
The district hasn’t had a tax increase for more than 15 years.
The story is pretty much the same in the Hillsboro Fire Protection District, where voters will be asked for the third time in three years to approve a tax increase, this time to allow the district to maintain its staff of firefighters. Its voters last approved an increase in 2002.
All questions require a simple majority for passage.
Dunklin
One of the Dunklin Fire district’s two April ballot measures is Proposition S, a 25-cent tax increase to help pay day-to-day expenses and long-term maintenance, such as replacing aging firetrucks.
The other measure is Proposition P, which calls for the district’s property tax rate to be increased from 4.6 cents to 10 cents to help fund its pension program.
Chief Brad Williams said both are needed.
“With the economy the way it is, everybody is having a hard time making ends meet. We know that, but a fire district is no different,” he said. “We’re tax-supported. We don’t have a product that we can raise the price for and sell to the public. Our support comes from our taxpayers.”
Proposition P, which will improve the pension plan, will bring the district up to the state standard of a 10-cent levy for pensions.
“We want to make sure our people will be taken care of when they retire,” Williams said.
Proposition S, he said, is a matter of pure economics.
“Our last tax increase was in 2006. The cost of things has gone up for everyone, including the things we need to support a fire district. We were able to replace air packs, which we last bought in 2006 when taxes were increased and were a vital need, but by cutting other things in the budget.
“We have trucks that need to be replaced. Our firefighter turnout gear also needs to be replaced. When you notice your utility bills are going up, so are ours. It’s costing more money to fill up the tanks in our trucks.”
Williams said he hopes with better education about the tax measures, more voters will see the need to maintain a quality fire service.
However, the chief said he won’t inject scare tactics into the campaign.
“I refuse to say that services will be adversely affected if these don’t pass. We’ll find a way to continue to answer calls for service,” he said. “We have people out there who do support us, and we want to work hard for them. But it took 20 years to pass the last tax increase (in 2006) and I hope it’s not going to take 20 years again. But if these do pass, I can tell you we won’t need to go for another one for another 10 or 15 years.”
Williams said Proposition S is expected to generate about $500,000 a year.
Dunklin Fire’s current tax rate is 66.01 cents per $100 assessed valuation. If both measures pass, the tax rate would climb by 30.4 cents to 96.05 per $100 assessed valuation.
If the two propositions pass, the owner of a house valued at $150,000 by the county Assessor’s Office would pay $86.64 more per year in property taxes. That additional tax would be added to that homeowner’s current Dunklin Fire bill of $188.13 a year.
If only the 25-cent increase passes, it would annually cost the $150,000 house owner an extra $71.25, while if only the 5.4-cent increase passes, it would cost an extra $15.39.
“I invite anyone with any questions to come by the firehouse, or give me a call,” Williams said.
The district covers about 22 square miles in Pevely and part of Herculaneum.
Hillsboro FPD
For the third year in a row, the
Hillsboro Fire Protection District is asking voters to approve a tax increase aimed at covering the cost of maintaining six firefighters.
Proposition Full-Time Staffing asks for a property tax increase of 35 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, to be phased in over three years.
Under the proposal, an additional 25 cents would be added to property tax bills in the first year, and another 5 cents in the second and third years.
The issues that voters turned thumbs-down to in 2021 and 2020 both called for a 50-cent property tax increase.
“We did a lot of soul-searching after the last failure,” Chief Brian Gaudet said, “and we talked with people who said the No. 1 reason they voted no is because we were asking too much. We went back and decided that our main goal is to keep the firefighters we have through the grant. So, we took building a new firehouse out of the mix. To make it somewhat easier for people, we thought we’d phase it in.”
The district received a $1,011,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2020 that covered the cost of hiring six firefighters and paying their salaries and benefits for three years.
To keep the six new firefighters (who bring the number of full-time paid firefighters to 14, supplemented by 20 part-timers and volunteers) beyond the three years, the district must find a way to cover their pay.
Gaudet said it’s vital the firefighters remain on staff.
“We’ve seen a huge safety benefit to the district by being about to have House No. 2 open 24-7,” he said. “Response times have gotten better throughout the district. That translates into lives saved and property saved.”
Meanwhile, Gaudet said, the district’s call volume is on the rise.
“In 2020, we answered 1,022 calls for service,” he said. “That went up to 1,295 in 2021 – almost a 300-call difference.”
He said the increase, once phased in, will generate about $500,00 a year.
At the district’s current property tax rate of 48.41 cents per $100 assessed valuation, the owner of a house valued at $150,000 by the county Assessor’s Office pays $137.97 in real estate taxes.
If the proposition passes, that homeowner would pay $71.25 more in the first year in real estate taxes and another $14.25 on top of that in each of the next two years. Once the tax is fully phased in, the bill would be $249.29.
“Right now, we have the second-lowest tax rate (among fire protection districts) in the county. If this passes, we would still have the fourth-lowest,” Gaudet said.