BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
More information on potential new fees could be around the corner.
Bradford County reengaged a consultant last year to reexamine options for collecting special assessments to pay for Bradford County Fire Rescue’s firefighting and emergency medical services.
According to County Manager Scott Kornegay, a recent meeting confirmed that the work was nearly complete. When it is, Kornegay said he would schedule the consultant to appear at the following county commission meeting.
A Feb. 15 resolution approved the method of collection on the county tax bills, but not the actual assessments. With a rate schedule prepared by the consultant, commissioners will need to decide whether to continue moving forward and how much to collect.
Commissioners are turning to special assessments because even with a property tax rate of 10 mills, fire and EMS remain underfunded. If new assessments are approved, commissioners have a stated desire to reduce property taxes.
Bryant Miller Olive is the same firm that made the calculations in 2018-19. The assessment calculated to fund the fire department at the time was more than $145 per residential dwelling unit. The consultant also looked at an assessment for emergency medical services, which came to more than $160 per dwelling unit.
These were the maximum amounts the commission could have levied in 2019. Commissioners could have adopted lower amounts as well, only partially closing the funding deficit.
Bryant Miller Olive’s calculations were based on apportioning the cost of fire and EMS services by demand. Finding around 60% of the calls for service originating from residential addresses, 60% of the cost of funding the service was apportioned to those properties.
Commercial properties were not charged by building unit but by square foot — 23 cents per square foot for fire and 17 cents for EMS.
When it came to vacant properties, they were only assessed for the fire fee because vacant properties typically don’t generate calls for EMS. The fire charge recommended was around $65, but the charge did not apply to agricultural properties. That means timber companies that own thousands of acres in Bradford County would not pay the assessments. Other exempt properties include government properties and, if the commission chooses, churches and nonprofits.
Even with the limitations, the consultant told the commission in 2018 that special assessments tend to be fairer and more equitable than property taxes, which a large percentage of the population can be excused from paying because of low property values and multiple tax exemptions.
Municipal governments can opt in or out of the county collecting special assessments within their corporate limits. Starke was included in the 2019 EMS study but not in the fire assessment study because the city has its own fire department. If, however, Starke commissioners don’t agree to the collection of a special assessment, a lot of potential revenue for the county would be left on the table. Thousands of households would be free from the assessment, but so would all the commercial square footage that is concentrated in the city limits.
County and city commissioners may have more to talk about this time around as city residents have been barred from the county’s solid waste collection site because they don’t pay the solid waste assessment. Even if not politically popular, both boards could come to see assessments as an advantage to providing needed services while lowering property taxes to attract growth and development.
A special assessment is not a fee that can be avoided by rejecting the service. Like taxes, special assessments are mandatory. Once imposed, all affected property owners are responsible for paying them. But special assessments are different from taxes in that the revenue is earmarked for a specific purpose and cannot be used for anything else, as is the case with the county’s garbage assessment.
Both boards could also reimplement impact fees as a way for new development share the cost of growth.
More information about the assessment rates is imminent, but nothing will be finalized until affected property owners are notified and a public hearing is held.
