Officials think they can finally pour water on a long-burning question: How can they pay for fire and emergency services without raising property taxes in Durango?
They’re attacking the controversy with a strategy similar to getting a forest fire under control, by digging a trench and cutting the fire off from its fuel source.
The city of Durango would be de-annexed from the Durango Fire Protection District, but would still be provided with the services of Durango Fire & Rescue Authority through a new 15-year contract. The contract will have to be approved by city of Durango voters in a special November election.
This eliminates the controversy of subjecting Durango residents to a new property tax, which voters twice have rejected in the past. It allows the city to pay for its fire and emergency services as it has done since 2001 – primarily through its sales-tax revenue, which is collected in its general fund.
The city’s contribution has been about $2.8 million per year to the authority, which was created through the consolidation of three fire departments but without giving the fire authority the ability to raise taxes on its own.
The new solution skirts the tax issue without sacrificing service, officials said.
“If this is approved, the people in Durango are going to receive the same level of service or better than what they get currently. They’re not going to be assessed an additional property tax,” City Manager Ron LeBlanc said.
The City Council on Tuesday gave staff members approval to go ahead with a special election and to ask for court approval to leave the fire district.
Voters in the Animas and Hermosa Cliff fire protection districts also would have to approve a mill levy, perhaps 5.8 mills, which would be about the same or little less than their current rates.
Bud Smith, the lawyer for the three districts of Animas, Hermosa Cliff and Durango that provide the funding for the authority, said his proposal is a case for simplicity because it would replace three different fire protection districts with one district.
Currently, each constituent district has its own elected board to oversee its taxing authority. Each of the district’s revenues also are subject to audits. Administrative services are duplicated.
Under the proposed solution, Smith said, “it will be like how it’s always operated, but without all these layers of government. We will have one single fire district and a contract with the city.”
The fire district then would be overseen by a board of seven members elected at large instead of the board that now is comprised of two appointees from Animas, Hermosa Cliff and Durango and one member selected at large.
Because city residents no longer would be subject to the tax, city voters would not be able to vote for the board members unless they also own property outside the city, Smith said.
Because county residents typically own businesses and property within the city and Durango residents also are invested in the county, Smith downplayed the loss of representation on the board.
He thought it was a nonissue because Emil Wanatka, a Durango resident who serves as president of the Durango Fire Protection District board, still would be eligible to serve because he also owns land in the county.
In fact, “there’s not current member of this board that would no longer be eligible,” Smith said. “So the impact may be overstated if you say the city is losing representation. People should not get hung up on the idea of being disenfranchised and no longer represented. They will be represented by people who have their interests at heart.”
Fire Chief Dan Noonan also made a pitch for community unity.
“Too many times we’ve had an us-versus-them mentality,” he said. “Our firefighters and medics have no us-versus-them (mentality). Whatever the need, they’re responding to it and taking care of it. It makes no difference where you live.”
jhaug@durangoherald.com
