BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Some answers to “frequently asked questions” about a proposed fire assessment fee are being circulated in Bradford County.
County Manager Scott Kornegay shared the document with county commissioners at the June 20 meeting, and they urged him to get it online and out to the public.
The fact sheet discusses what the fee is and why it is necessary — to provide fire rescue the resources necessary to “maintain public safety.”
While it does address how the fee is calculated, it doesn’t answer the biggest question, which is how much property owners will pay each year. There isn’t a single answer to that question because residential and nonresidential properties are assessed differently. Also, commissioners haven’t committed to an amount.
A study by consultants at Stantec set the fee at $309 per residential unit and 20 cents per nonresidential square foot to raise the money necessary to fund the county fire department budget. At the time, Commission Chairwoman Carolyn Spooner said there’s “no way” the commission would approve that amount. Commissioner Diane Andrews recently told Brooker officials the residential fee could be closer to $200 a year (see related story).
Commissioners haven’t voted on that, but they will vote on the first reading of the fire assessment ordinance at their July 2 meeting, which takes place at the courthouse at 9:30 a.m. A subsequent public hearing and vote will be necessary to enact the ordinance.
The county commission can only impose the fee in unincorporated Bradford County. Each council or commission will decide if the fee will be collected within their city. The county provides fire rescue service for Lawtey, Hampton and Brooker. It has a mutual aid agreement with the city of Starke, which has its own fire department, although it has been downsized by budget cuts.
While much of the revenue for households would come from unincorporated Bradford County, most nonresidential property — especially commercial property — is concentrated within the city of Starke. Without the city’s participation, the county won’t have access to that revenue.
When asked, the consultant could not provide data breaking down residential and nonresidential properties by municipality. They were able to clarify that multifamily housing such as apartments would be charged the residential assessment per unit, with the property owner (landlord) seeing the assessment on their tax bill, the same as the solid waste special assessment.
RV parks, however, are charged the noncommercial rate at 500 square feet per space. Again, this is paid by the property owner, although the charge could be passed on through the rental price.
Unlike property taxes, households would pay the same fire assessment, regardless of property value. Similarly, vacant land would be charged per parcel, regardless of size. The consultant’s study recommended $73.
The county’s fact sheet does address possible exemptions for faith-based organizations and nonprofits. It’s up to the commission to decide. Finally, property owners are told that failure to pay the assessment could result in penalties, interest charges or a lien against their property.
Cart before the horse?
Is the county moving too soon on the fire assessment before considering another option to raise money for the fire department?
The question was raised during public comments and later by Commissioner Andrews during the June 20 meeting. She asked if the county was putting the cart before the horse by moving on the fire assessment before adopting new impact fees.
By not collecting impact fees, Bradford is losing revenue from the construction taking place around the county, she said.
Impact fees are a one-time fee on new development paid during the permitting process. The revenue is used to offset the cost of growth in the county.
Impact fees were adopted in 2007 in anticipation of a growth spurt that never happened. At the time, the county was charging fees for firefighting, emergency medical services, law enforcement, roads, public buildings, parks and libraries.
The residential fee didn’t provide much in the way of support — $550 per single-family home ($225 for “workforce housing”). Commercial fees varied by the type and size of business, but the infrequency of nonresidential construction in unincorporated Bradford County would not have provided much revenue for infrastructure projects. An impact fee moratorium in 2009 following the housing market crash was never lifted.
Fifteen years later, housing construction has picked up, and while infrequent, projects like the Holiday Inn Express and RaceTrac could be worth many thousands of dollars in impact fees.
But an impact fee and special assessment fee are not the same. They cannot be used by the same purposes. One does not replace the other.
As County Manager Scott Kornegay pointed out, impact fee revenue can only be used for infrastructure — a new building or vehicle for the fire department, for example. It could not be used for operational costs, including the cost of personnel, and those costs represent most of department’s multimillion dollar budget.
The consultant at Stantac is working on new impact fee analysis for the county. Since it has been so long since they were first adopted, a new look at what those impact fees should be is warranted.
For Kornegay, it’s not a matter of choice. The choice to pursue the fire assessment first was because “the intensity” of that discussion. For Andrews, it is hard to settle the amount of the fire assessment without also knowing how much revenue impact fees could provide.
There is no certainty to that prediction, however. As when impact fees were first adopted, there is no guarantee of growth, and no guarantee existing growth will continue. In that way, impact fees are a nonrecurring revenue source, available for targeted infrastructure projects until spent. They cannot sustain operations of the fire rescue department the way higher taxes or a special assessment would.
LB VFW hosts bingo
Lake Butler VFW Post 10082 has bingo on Thursdays at 7 p.m. The VFW is located off C.R. 231 just outside of Lake Butler. Look for the sign on the left (coming from town).
