DESTIN — Given decreased property values and budget shortfalls, the Destin Fire Control District will ask voters for permission to raise its mileage rate cap to the maximum allowed by state law.
“It allows the (Board of Fire Commissioners) the ability to operate the district in a way that meets the need of the citizens,” Fire Chief Kevin Sasser said. “It doesn’t mean that the board will go up to the maximum cap, but it gives them flexibility.”
As it stands, the district’s charter caps the tax rate at 1 mill. One mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of taxable property value.
The fire district will ask Destin residents in a special referendum May 14 whether or not they support raising the millage cap to 3.75 mills.
Sasser said most other professional fire districts in south Okaloosa County have set their millage caps at 3.75. The actual millage rates set by those districts range from 2 to 3.1 mills, he said.
Given the decline in property values over the past few years, Sasser said Destin has been using funds from its reserves to help balance the budget.
That cannot continue, fire district officials say. According to a letter from board Chairman Tommy Green, the district’s remaining contingency funds will only cover a portion of the projected shortfall for the upcoming budget year and would be “completely expended” by the following year.
“To continue to provide existing services while holding the budget flat for the next two years would require a millage rate for 2014 of approximately 1.12 mills and 1.25 mills in 2015, based on the best projections available for property tax valuations,” Green wrote. “As the public record shows, at no time has the commission considered raising the millage rate above these levels.”
Not everyone is so sure. Bob Wagner, who is considering running for the fire commission, wrote a letter to The Destin Log saying: “I understand that the current millage rate has been in effect since 1971 and some change may be needed. However, to ask the taxpayers of Destin to accept the maximum millage rate increase by law and not the 1.25 rate that is needed to balance the budget shows a lack of fiscal responsibility for our money.”
But Sasser said the only options the fire district has to balance the budget are either to reduce services or ask for an increase to the tax cap.
“Our citizens have become accustomed to a certain level of service, and we don’t want to reduce that, if possible,” he said.
Given the proposed 1.12 mills that the district would potentially operate under in fiscal 2014, Sasser said it would be only a $12 increase for properties valued at $100,000.
The referendum will give the fire district an idea of where residents stand, Sasser said. The district also is scheduling meetings with residents who want to discuss the issue. For more information about the meetings, call the fire district at 837-8413.
Meanwhile, Sasser said the district will continue to offer the best services possible, regardless of the outcome of the referendum.
“We’d like for them to vote yes, but if they vote no, that’s OK, too,” he said. “We are just trying to avoid a reduction in services we offer.”
BALLOT QUESTION: “To operate and maintain the Destin Fire Control District’s current facilities, fire rescue, advanced life support and beach rescue services for the citizens of the district, shall the district be allowed to change the millage cap from the current rate of 1.0 mills, approved in 1971, to 3.75 mills as authorized by Chapter 191, Florida Statute. Your elected commissioners set the millage rate annually, which determines the rate you pay, during publicly open budgeting processes.”
Destin Log Staff Writer Matt Algarin can be reached at 850-654-8446 or malgarin@thedestinlog.com. Follow him on Twitter @DestinLogMatt.