Rural fire tax may go up: Sterling asks for more money to 
keep firefighters

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STERLING – Residents in the rural fire district likely will be paying more for fire protection.

The Sterling Rural Fire Protection Board wants to more than double its take. It has approved setting its maximum property tax levy at 30 cents per $100 of equalized assessed property value; the current maximum rate is 12.5 cents per $100 of EAV.

Last year, the fire district levied 12.37 cents.

City residents pay 29 cents per $100 of EAV.

District residents have 30 days to gather signatures to force the issue onto the ballot; 464 signatures are needed. Otherwise, it becomes law.

The new maximum rate doesn't necessarily mean the district, which encompasses about 4,000 properties in Prairieville, Indian Ridge, Como, Emerson, Galt and Penrose, would levy that amount.

How much the district board will levy remains to be seen. It next must decide what to take in property taxes.

In 2010, it expects to bring in $206,000, which includes $155,000 in property taxes, plus corporate replacement taxes and interest income. Ninety-five percent of that will be paid to the city to provide fire service.

The city and Firefighters Union Local 2301, want the rural board to more than double its levy to 28 cents, which would bring in an estimated $230,000 in property taxes alone.

"I don't know whether the board would go up to 28 cents or not," said John Miller, the rural board's attorney. "It's more than double of what's there now. It's pretty extreme in these times."

"We agree, we're not providing as much as we should," Miller said.

If the full levy is approved, the owners of a $90,000 house would pay $48 more a year in taxes.

The rural board won't decide how much to increase its levy until next year, and the city would not get its raise until 2011.

Raising rural fire district taxes will keep the city from laying off firefighters in May 2010, City Manager Scott Shumard said. "The important part is there is a commitment of future funding that we could rely on."

Last month, the city and the firefighters union reached an agreement that allowed six laid-off firefighters to come back on the job, and the Lynn Boulevard substation to reopen.

As part of that agreement, both sides said they would support an increase to the rural fire protection tax rate, and the city agreed not to lay off any firefighters next May as long as the rural district board raised the property tax rate.

To vote on the tax

If people want the tax rate increase to appear on February’s ballot, where it could be voted on, 464 signatures are needed. Petitions are available at the Rural Fire District’s attorney’s office Miller, Lancaster, Walker & Burall, 15 E. Third St., Sterling, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.The deadline to file a petition is Nov. 18.

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