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Mills River fire chief defends proposed fire tax increase

MILLS RIVER — Although the town of Mills River would keep its tax rate level in 2015-16, a fire tax increase requested by the Mills River Fire & Rescue Department would mean higher tax bills for residents and businesses.

Like all but one volunteer fire department in the county, Mills River is asking for an increase this year in the fire tax, which pays to operate and buy equipment for fire and emergency services. The 1½ -cent increase would raise the rate to 9 cents per $100 valuation and would generate $168,750 a year in revenue.
Because of tax base growth, the department would gain $101,450 even without the increase. A 1½-cent increase would raise its budget to $838,000, up $241,000 over the current year, according to the town manager’s budget presentation.
Although that’s a big number, the needs are big, too, Mills River Fire Chief Rick Livingston said.
“As you know, the growth in Mills River in the past two years has been tremendous,” he said. “Part of that growth has been primarily industrial and commercial and that has forced us through the order of the Department of Insurance to buy a ladder truck if we are going to maintain our Class 4 rating.”
Since the last reappraisal, Mills River has seen the opening of the new Ingles, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and Empire Distributors plus several other new plants and plant expansions.
The ladder truck, which is on order, cost just under $1 million. The department borrowed money to finance it over 15 years but plans to pay it off in seven.
“We’ve always tried to operate as close to the line as possible,” Livingston said. But capital needs and personnel costs combined with increased demand for service — calls rose 13 percent in 2014 and they’re running ahead of that pace this year — are putting pressure on the department.
“Our main station was constructed in 1969 and we’ve got a lot of issues with it,” he said. “We’re out of space and the roof leaks, and this past year we purchased seven acres of land to start construction on a new main station in about five years.”
The department needs to replace a 1969 tanker, a 1988 fire engine and an ambulance. “Those three are going to have to be replaced imminently at a total cost of $900,000,” he said.
Finally, higher personnel costs loom.
“This is nothing that’s unique to Mills River. It’s happening nationwide. The volunteer numbers and interest is dwindling, lifestyles have changed and training requirements have gone up,” he said. In order to have at least one paid firefighter on duty, the department needs to add three employees. The department currently has five paid firefighters and 55 volunteers.
The county’s Fire and Rescue Advisory Council will review the requested fire tax increase in May and made a recommendation to the county Board of Commissioners, which has the final say on the rate.
Meanwhile, Town Manager Jeff Wells recommended a $1.47 million budget that keeps the town’s tax rate at 2.24 cents per $100 valuation. The proposed rate for the fiscal year starting July 1 is a half-cent more than the revenue neutral rate, based on Mills River’s tax base growth from the 2015 reappraisal. The town’s tax base has grown by $89 million since 2011, an average of 3.9 percent per year. That means that homeowners or businesses that saw an increased in their assessed value will pay more in taxes even as the town’s rate remains the same.
Wells called an “operational and maintain what we have” budget. The council will review it in a budget work session on May 14. The draft budget also would:
• Reclassify the receptionist as administrative assistant, reflecting her duties as deputy tax collector and accounts payable assistant, and increasing the salary from $23,753 to $29,692.
• Add a part-time park ranger to allow dawn-to-dusk coverage.
• Authorize a 1.7 percent cost of living raise for employees and up to 2 percent based on merit.
• Increase the town’s appropriation from $12,000 to $14,000 for the Partnership for Economic Development and from $4,000 to $8,000 for Agribusiness Henderson County.
• Authorizes the $12,400 property tax refund to Sierra Nevada as part of a seven-year economic development incentive agreement.
• Decrease the administration budget by $162,000 and raising the parks budget by $154,000 to better reflect who is doing what.
• Fund the contracted sheriff’s deputy at $71,500 a year.
• Increase the planning and zoning budget by $26,000, to $33,400, in a reallocation from administration.