[Bill14564]

Reports are the BoCC voted 3-2 not to accept the proposal to raise the fire impact fee to 323.64 and change the way it was assessed on commercial properties. This takes about $25M out of the county budget and if not replaced, will mean $12.5M decrease to both VPSD and SCFEMS. So what happens now?

Possibility 1: Increase property taxes 25% to make up the $25M. To anyone with a taxable value over $150,000 this would result in you paying more than if the $323.64 passed. NOTE: This option may not be available to the BoCC. Since this would be a tax increase it may trigger a requirement for public notice and a public hearing. There might not be enough time left to have the hearing and have the budget in place by October.

Possibility 2: Underfund the departments by $12.5M each. This is over 25% of the VPSD budget and nearly 50% of the SCFEMS budget. What could possibly go wrong?

Possibility 3 (Unlikely): With something like 75% of the homes in the county within the boundaries of the Villages, they *could* split the $10M remaining after the cuts 75/25 and cut the VPSD by only $10M rather than $12.5M. This seems unlikely since it means a new way of allocating the fees and would cut SCFEMS even more.

Possibility 4: Lessen the impact to the departments by reducing other items in the budget. $25M comes out of the entire budget but not all out of the VPSD and SCFEMS lines.

My guess: Share the pain. Increase taxes but not by 25% - an historically dangerous number with an election coming up. Reduce VPSD and SCFEMS funding but not by the entire $25M - after all, do we really need the best service with the best ratings? And, reduce other items in the county budget - there a lot of lines to look at.

In my mind we are now zero for two on the fire department issue. We should have voted for the IFD rather than following those that admitted they were arguing against it only because they didn't understand it. We should have encouraged the BoCC to vote for this $200 increase so the departments could be fully funded without raising our taxes. Neither happened. Now we *need* to be concerned with the future of the VPSD.

There is a lot of expense in paying for the management of two services; millions of dollars could be saved if VPSD and SCFEMS were combined under one chain. There is a lot of expense in outfitting two separate services. There are eight stations in our small corner of the county and only eight (?) more covering the rest of county; some amount could be saved by combining the two and sharing the equipment. There is a lot of "us vs. them" sentiment in the county, particularly over roads and fire protection. Combining the two services would go a long way towards soothing that sentiment. There would be considerable savings and improved goodwill if the two services were combined. We *need* to be concerned with the future of the VPSD.

I want to keep the VPSD while also keeping my taxes low. I am concerned that is not the direction we are heading.