From the Richmond Palladium-Item:
The Richmond Common Council on Tuesday will look at a proposal to create a fire territory that would allow the city to separate fire costs from the city’s general fund and create a separate tax rate for fire protection services.
The territory would expand coverage and institute a fire protection tax rate for Spring Grove and the unincorporated portions of Wayne Township. Presently, the Richmond Fire Department contracts to provide fire prevention services for those two areas.
But the change also proposes to bump up the property tax rates for residents in the city of Richmond, Spring Grove and Wayne Township, according to initial estimates.
Paige Sansone, a CPA at H.J. Umbaugh & Associates, will make a presentation on expenses at the Tuesday meeting. She said tax rates for many in the city could go up by 5.8 percent.
“If I live in Richmond, as it is proposed, the tax rate would go up slightly,” she said. “That’s if I’m not at the circuit breaker tax cap. But the city is starting at the top, at the high end. This is not a big increase and this will be up for negotiation.”
Richmond Fire Chief Mike Crawley said residents in Richmond, Spring Grove and unincorporated Wayne Township pay for fire protection at different rates. This change would have all residents paying the same rate.
“Everybody would pay the same and our budget would be removed from the general fund,” Crawley said. “We think this is a fairer way to do it.
“With my budget, I think it forces us to be as efficient as we can be,” he said. “If we overspend we’ll have to cut our budget. It’s a benefit, I think.
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The proposed property tax rate for fire protection for Spring Grove would increase by 2.6 percent and 8.6 percent for those living in the unincorporated areas of Wayne Township.
The increases will pay for overtime, fleet gasoline and oil, tires and tubes, telephones and training for the fire department, according to the Sansone presentation.
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See the full article here:
http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013301190029&nclick_check=1
