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Escambia Considers Small Increase To Fire Tax
May 24, 2011
The fire fee tacked onto your annual property tax bill may be going up if you are a resident of Escambia County.
The Escambia County Commission has scheduled a June 16 public hearing to consider hiking the Municipal Services Benefit Unit (MSBU) fee by $5 per year for the next couple of years.
The current fee, assessed to Escambia County residents outside the city limits of Pensacola, is $75 per year. If the county commission passes the proposal, the fee would be $80 in 2012 and $85 in 2013.
Commercial property owners would also see an increase in the their fire tax, jumping about $60 per 10,000 square feet.
The increase fees, estimated at about a half million from residential property owners, will go toward funding 12 paid firefighters at the Ensley Station of Escambia Fire Rescue, the busiest station in the county. The firefighters were first hired under a 2009 grant that decreases yearly before ending.
The public hearing on the increase will be June 16, 5:30 in the commission chambers at the Escambia County Governmental Complex on Palafox Place in downtown Pensacola.
Comments
22 Responses to “Escambia Considers Small Increase To Fire Tax”
How many times has a Fire Department sedan, SUV or pickup truck raced by you only to see it a few minutes later at the doughnut shop? It’ll never go away and it’ll never decrease now! Taxes – as long as they can get more they will spend more – and more – and more. Some people have a tendency to say “it’s only $5 a year” or “support your heros” which are really fine perspectives; however, the issue is living within a budget, which most of us have to do these days – yet Escambia County is busily building brand new buildings, hiring redundant personnel, lavishing out raises and “promotions” to pad retirement objectives and now they want to simply dip into the ‘non ad valorem’ accessment pool for more money yet again to cover raises in expenses funded by one-time federal grants and extravagantly spent like it was there forever… I say “NO” to any new taxes: not $5 non ad valorem; not 1/2¢ sales tax; not increased accessments for our schools… Live within your budgets like the citizens are having to do; cut spending and spend efficiently NOT like you can always dip back into the citizens’ pockets. The “meeting” WON’T make any difference – these commissioners have already made-up their myopic beds and they really don’t care what the citizens are thinking… until it’s election time – then apparently the ones who say “no new or increased taxes” just lie – or have another “meeting” to cover their alliances with appointed government employees.
So the county won’t raise taxes to support any of their departments ?
They expect everyone to provide servivces with less money each year and that has been managed so far.
Maybe they need to have some of these other Department Directors run FIRE SERVICES to teach them to operate within a BUDGET !!!
Fire protection will not go away without this increase.
Here’s another truth. The north end is protected by career firemen during the daytime because of lack of volunteers. And if there is a fire with no response from the volunteer dept.’s the Engine Company stationed in Ensley or Cantonment will respond as far north as hwy 97 in Walnut Hill. Also as far as paying for fire taxes for companies in the south end. People in the north end do not raise enough fire taxes to support the equipment, stipend, and maintenance needed for the North end stations, to include Cantonment, Molino, Walnut Hill, McDavid, and Century. The people in the south end actually pay the majority of these costs. Staff vehicles, radio’s, fuel, gear, and trucks are very expensive and would not be able to be purchased for these fire districts if it wasn’t for the people in the south end paying their fire taxes!!!!! This is not even touching the fact that if there is an incident requiring HazMat or Special Operations to respond, they come from the south end all the way to Century or Walnut Hill!!! People don’t have a problem spending money on things like cigarettes or alcohol, but object to a 3 cent a day increase to protect your loved ones???? Get your priorities straight!!!.
this is for “long time ECFR vol.” the stipend check you get is to help cover your gas . It is not meant for a full time paycheck .99% of vol. work full time heck i work 2 jobs and volunteer also .
for “the truth” i am a certified firefighter/ emt . i know alot of other volunteers that are also certified . If you ask any of the career firefighters ,how did they get started in this work, they will answer i was a volunteer first
If this annual increase benefits our Volunteer Fire Fighters up in the northend in some positive way, then I whole heartedly support the increase.
However, I do not live in Pensacola, therefore I do not benefit from the Ensley Fire Dept firefighters having their job security. Lord forbid I should have a fire in my home, I know I won’t see them up here fighting it with my extra fire tax dollars at work!
It’s only a matter of time anyway before we see this $75 a year turn into double or triple that like they did with our car tags and etc…last year.
The increase was coming whether or not 12 more guys got hired or not. Grant money doesnt pay for overtime. There is a budget for that as well with in the fire budget and when it runs out no more overtime. I dont know about you but when I need help I want 4 certified firefighters/ emts showing up to my house in proper uniform and know what they are doing. I dont want to have to wait for a volunteer to wake up drive to station grab the truck then come to my house in dirty blue jeans and a untucked tshirt. 7 day old beard and look like he never worked out in his life. I dont understand people. the city pays 3 times more than we do and a hundred bucks a year for a full time response by trained proffessionals. thats a bargain. Nothing beats a fire next to a volunteer fire station and no one to put it out.
I support the $5 dollar increase, in fact I think it should be raised to $25. The Fire Dept. is doing more and more each day with less and less. Now the FD has hit the critical point and needs our help! The FD is only asking for $5 in fear that they wouldn’t get support if they asked for the true amount that is needed.
So who’s with me? Lets support our local heros!!
The one thing I have noticed for years is people complaining about the cost of fire protection, is that they have been lucky enough to not need it yet. Ask anyone who has had to call 911 and they would support an increase right away.
As far as the grant, yes it was needed. I am a volunteer and my stipend is not enough to support my family. As a result, I need to work full time and volunteer when I can. I have always supported bringing the career firefighters on board, I will be the first to admit that it is a crap shoot to run a volunteer company 24/7 in this day and age. Times change, and things get more expensive.
This should have been addressed 3 years ago, but so many people griped that it was tabled until now. And for the nay sayers out there, a fire tax is just like auto, life, and home insurance. You never want to use the benefits, but when you need them it pays off big time.
you should never hire with grant money. why make us pay when they did not have the funds from the start . A grant will always run out .
Thank you Escambia County.
We all need the fire dept.
When you call they come .
It does not have to be a fire.
Thank you fireman a job well done.
If this increase in the fire tax is in response to a grant, what will happen when the grant money runs out? Will we get another tax increase?
If I remember correctly,the tax started out at $5 per property owner. I’m a fish farmer and am required to pay the fire tax on my ponds even though I haven’t had one catch fire yet, it’s good to know the firefighters are on hand to put them out and won’t even have to bring water!
I was in the Volunteer Fire Dept for ten years. I was in it when we first got county funding, before that it was door to door donations. we tripled our anual budget the first year and had to have meetings to come up with ways to spend the money. now that department gets about 700% increase from first budget.
This is just another tax increase by our gov. WE HAVE TO LIVE IN OUR MEANS BUT THEY DON’T GET IT.
As for the grant money, this is why gov rick scott turned down the feds on the rail money. we are left to pay the cost when the grant runs out.
The county should have had funding figured out before accepting this grant. Just another case of county mismanagement. They need to figure out how to properly spend the money the get now.
All I have to say is when you have over a half a million dollars in overtime, dont tax me to support your mismanagement of money. County Commisioners need to crunch the numbers and find it elsewhere.
For all of you griping about a 10 dollar increase in your fire tax, you should take a look at what you are paying Morgan each year so that one of the deputies can come out and write a report AFTER the crime has happened. Our brave paid and volunteer firemen are putting their lives on the line for you 24/7 and 85 bucks per year is a cheap price compared to what you are getting.
Folks, as a family member and neighbor of one of the men who protects our county 24/7 I need to let ya’ll in on a secret. This fee increase will not give the firefighters of Escambia County a pay increase. This fee increase is only to support the grant used to hire 12 firemen stationed across the county. As many of you might not realize, there are several stations within Escambia county that do not have guaranteed coverage after 4 or 5PM. You might also want to know that there are actually only 2 fire districts within the county that are able to respond with a minimum manning as required by LAW within the time permitted. Yes that means that only 2 out of 18 fire districts within Escambia County are able to have volunteers to run a call with the appropriate staffing without SAFETY being an issue. THE SOLUTION: for only $0.027 per day or $10 per year fee increase, every district would have a guaranteed response 24/7 by either an in district fire department or an adjoining department with paramedics and EMT’s!!!! Might not seem so important until it affects your safety or your children’s safety. People do not realize how important it is to have somebody like my neighbor respond quickly with the right training until they become ill, have a fire, or a loved one in a car wreck. Folks, tell your county commissioner that you want the protection you deserve!!!
I SAYLET PENSACOLA TAKE CARE OF THEM SELFS. AS FOR THE FIRE TAX THE PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE VOTED ON IT IN THE FRIST PLACE.EVERY ONE SHOULD GET A CAMERA AND . START FILMING ALL THE WASTE. THE CITY WANTED THE NORTH END TO PAY FOR THERE RETIREMENT A LITTLE WHILE BACK THE NORTH END PAYED FOR THEM A NEW S…….. TANK. THIS IS LIKE EVERY THING ELIS. GIVE THEM AND INCH AND THEY TAKE A MILE. THE BUCK STOPS NOW!
Here we go again. Gene, Gene, the Taxin’ Machine (Valentino) never met a tax he didn’t like, and the others don’t seem to have a grasp on what is actually going on out here in the real world. If Kevin White supports any tax increase in this economy, we need to vote him out now.
It’s not right that the northend residents should pay an increase in fire taxes for funding firefighters in Pensacola when the firefighters in our area take care of us as Volunteers. This fire tax fee increase should be passed on the the people in the Ensley area who will benefit from their services…not the northend residents.
a public meeting is a cop out. put it on a ballot and let us vote on it.
I was in the Volunteer Fire Department for years. Believe me they don’t need more money, they need to oversee the spending that is going on now. Look at the overtime being paid out for the paid crews year to date. I challenge Northescambia to look into the budget of the paid crews and monies expended and report that out. Call your Commissioner and let him know that the county needs to do a better job spending what they have.
What with the economy why would they not reduce the overhead on the downtown bunch and look at inovative ways to reduce costs on fleet maintenance ect.