SANFORD, Fla. – As city leaders in Sanford consider a fire assessment fee, families have started receiving letters informing them of what’s on the table.
One of the first questions many want to know: how much will I have to pay?
The answer is in your individual letter that was sent in the mail. You’ll find it on the second page in the second paragraph under the table.
Our News 6 team met with Mayor Art Woodruff on Friday to explain.
“A lot of this is set by state statute, what the language has to be,” Woodruff explained. “Could we have probably done something better? We did talk about trying to put an extra thing with it, and that did not come through.”
The mayor posted on social media and acknowledged that a lot of people have had questions since they got their letters in the mail.
News 6 first reported on the proposed fee in June when commissioners listened to a final presentation explaining how it would work. The city currently funds fire service through property taxes and other general fund revenue, such as sales taxes, communication service taxes, and public utility taxes. The additional fire assessment fee would specifically fund fire protection services, and therefore free up other revenue in the general fund.
[WATCH: Sanford slowly approaches final vote for proposed fire fee]
Woodruff says the city plans to use the money for equipment costs.
“A fire engine costs a little over $1 million. We took that out of the budget this year to balance the budget,” Woodruff told News 6 Friday. “And that’s why we set this for the equipment costs for the fire department, so that we have a set fund to maintain the equipment in the fire department and we don’t get to that point where, you know, we have a breakdown and we don’t have something to respond with.”
The fee would be based on the five-year average capital costs for the department, which is roughly $2.4 million. If it is implemented, the average homeowner would pay about $85 per year, according to the mayor.
“There are a couple hundred properties that are over $1,000,” said Woodruff. “I’ve looked at the spreadsheet — the top 29 are, you know, that are in the thousands range, I think the highest is $18,000. Those are all apartment complexes or big businesses that are actually headquartered outside of Sanford.”
The mayor shared numbers on his Facebook account that show the highest bill will be $19,279, which is for an apartment complex. The majority of properties will be assessed at $100 or less.
Our News 6 team attended a public meeting in July and heard mixed opinions on the proposed fee.
“You need to live in your budget,” said one Sanford resident. “You know, maybe there’s other solutions. For example, maybe Sanford needs to merge with Seminole County. I don’t like it, I think it’s very unpopular because I think we’re very proud of our fire department, as I said, but we have to look at other solutions.”
The city previously considered adding a fire fee in 2008 but ultimately decided against it. When our crew asked the mayor about other options Friday, he said if the commission decides against it again, they could be at risk of not keeping up with equipment and other costs in future years.
“Are we at a breaking point, or getting close to a breaking point, if we don’t find a way to generate funds?” we asked.
“I think by next year we would have to either raise the tax rate, which we do not want to do, and/or cutting services,” said Woodruff.
The mayor said the city must also consider what position they could find themselves in as the state moves towards reducing the number of hours firefighters can work over two weeks.
“If that goes through as they seem to intend happening, it will be about $4 million a year for us,” said Woodruff. “This puts us in a better position to be ready for that.”
A final vote is scheduled for Sept. 8.