Voters in the Durango Fire & Rescue Authority service area face a tough choice in November: approve a districtwide property tax or risk losing some fire and ambulance services.
“We’re just asking to maintain the service level (residents) are currently receiving,” DFRA Chief Dan Noonan said. “To do that, some people will have to pay a little bit more.”
The district board will meet Tuesday to consider putting a ballot question to the voters. If approved, it would create a districtwide property tax of about 6.8 mills – or $217 per year on a $400,000 home.
The measure has support from a citizen-review committee, various divisions of the fire department and the Durango City Council.
The measure would eliminate existing levies and bond debts within the 325-square-mile district. It would result in an annual increase of about $137 per year for city residents, $40 per year for Animas Fire residents and a decrease of about $36 per year for Hermosa Cliffs residents – based on a $400,000 home.
The new tax would raise an additional $1.8 million for the fire department and restore its funding to 2010 levels of about $7.7 million, Noonan said.
It is too early to know how services will be pared back if the ballot question fails, Noonan said. It largely depends on unpredictable factors, including time of call, location of incident and other calls in progress, he said.
“I can clearly say, overall, I believe it will affect the level of services that we provide,” Noonan said.
In 2006, the district asked voters to approve a similar measure at 6.323 mills, less than what it would seek this year. But it failed 65 percent to 35 percent.
Since then, a nationwide recession has lowered property values and cut gas production in La Plata County, reducing the amount of revenue flowing to the fire district.
Operational revenue is down 20 percent this year, or $1.5 million. And the district projects a 6 percent loss next year, or $375,000.
“What is clearly different is the impending end of us being able to provide the level of services that we’re providing today,” Noonan said.
Other differences this year:
The city of Durango has agreed to eliminate an existing property tax of 2.507 mills if the ballot initiative passes. That would help ease the burden of a new 6.8 mill levy. The city made no such commitment five years ago.
The tax would pay off about $2.2 million in existing bond debt in the Animas and Hermosa Cliffs fire districts, which would eliminate those taxing districts and help create one taxing entity.
Noonan said the Rescue Authority did a poor job in 2006 of educating the public about the benefits of a uniform tax throughout the district. This year, the department created a citizen-review panel and surveyed more than 11,200 households to gauge their support for a unified taxing district. (The survey had a 7 percent response rate.)
Salaries frozen since 2009
The Rescue Authority was formed in 2002 by combining an ambulance service and three fire districts: Durango, Animas and Hermosa Cliffs. Voters made it official in 2006 by creating the Durango Fire Protection District. But voters rejected a uniform property tax to fund the district. So each district maintains separate funding mechanisms and independent boards of directors that make up the Rescue Authority.
It protects about 15,150 residential properties and 2,370 commercial properties.
The agency responds to about 10 calls per day, which include fire, hazardous materials cleanup, ambulance, rope rescue, swift-water rescue and search-and-rescue incidents. It has 190 members, including 80 volunteers.
Firefighters have not received a pay increase for two years, Noonan said. Some residents accuse the organization of being top-heavy, he said, but only two employees make “market salary.”
Employees are paid 83 percent of market salary on average, Noonan said. The department should be paying 93 percent to 106 percent of market value, he said.
Former county Commissioner Bob Lieb opposed the 2006 measure, saying it would generate huge amounts of revenue with no caps. That was when gas production was booming, he said.
Now he supports the measure, saying the economic landscape has shifted.
“The property taxes that everybody gets from oil and gas is down and probably won’t come up to the old levels anytime soon,” he said. “Because of that, there is no need for limitations in their (ballot) question.”
The city’s willingness to eliminate its property tax also helped change his opinion, he said.
Lieb, father of current county Commissioner Bobby Lieb, served on the citizen-review panel created by the fire department.
“The fire department has made some significant alterations to their plan to make it much more palatable,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy – it’s a tax increase, yes – but it will keep the level of service.”
Improvements and ‘insurance’
The fire district also plans to ask voters to “de-Bruce,” or override the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, called TABOR. The amendment drives down a district’s levy when property values increase, but if they decrease, the levy doesn’t increase, which can create a ratcheting-down effect.
TABOR also can limit an organization’s ability to benefit from grants and federal wildland firefighting.
Creating a districtwide levy would eliminate redundancies when it comes to audits, accounting, legal fees and election costs, Noonan said.
The property tax would support operational expenses into the future and free up current reserve accounts for capital-improvement projects over the next few years, Noonan said. It would not fund long-term capital improvements such as new fire trucks and fire stations, he said.
He asked residents to think about how much they spend on cable, Internet and cellphone bills monthly.
“We’re like their insurance policy,” Noonan said. “Do you really want to do without your property insurance? Do you really want to do without a fire department that can’t meet the needs of the community?”
