Commission eliminates fire tax from Smart Growth plan

By Lisa Majors-Duff

The fire tax was originally included as a strategy to accomplish the goal of providing adequate funding for emergency services, one of several areas of interest expressed during two years worth of countywide Smart Growth meetings sponsored by county government.

Other recommended goals and their corresponding strategies were:

1) Proactive long-range planning - hire a professional county planner and staff to develop a comprehensive land-use plan.

2) Manage and control residential and commercial growth - enact a subdivision ordinance (with several specific elements outlined).

3) Preserve the small-town, rural nature of the county by creating a walkable community - obtain easements and assist in developing an operations and maintenance plan.

Commissioner Roberta Crawford began the discussion by saying that while she agreed with the plan's goals, she did not agree with all the strategies." "I would like to wait until the planner is on board to move ahead with this," she said.

The county planner's job description is complete and should appear in statewide media outlets the week of Aug. 5, county Manager Ken Westmoreland reported. A planner could be hired as early as Oct. 1.

In addition to this announcement, Westmoreland presented the board with a list of property tax values for each of the county's seven fire districts. The list showed that roughly speaking, 1 cent tax on a $100 valuation in Balsam would generate $14,000; Canada, $11,000; Cashiers, $171,000; Cullowhee, $33,000; Qualla, $20,000; Savannah, $13,000; and Sylva, $45,000.

"Volunteers rely on fund-raising and the spirit of the community," said Commissioner Stacy Buchanan, who indicated he could support allowing voters to decide the issue of a fire tax through a referendum. "With a tax it becomes more of a paid department. The whole attitude toward the 'volunteer' fire department is going to change."

Asking firefighters to work for a fire tax would be unfair, said Crawford, who said she was not in favor of the measure.

"I know the comments we get about taxes. I'd hate to have our firemen get those same comments," she said. "Right now the firemen are the heroes." In addition, she said, a tax supporting fire departments could cause community support for fire departments to dry up.

"I am one commissioner who really tries to support the fire departments," Crawford said. "If there was a tax, I wouldn't do that; my generous nature would run out."

"You wouldn't have to," Chairman Jay Denton responded. "(The fire departments) wouldn't need it."

Eliminating departments' fund-raising responsibilities would give firefighters additional time to train, Denton said, which, in turn, would improve the services offered.

"All I know is that law enforcement doesn't have to have a fund-raiser to buy pistols," he said. "We give them what they want.

"But the 'heroes,' as you call them, the guys going into burning buildings and picking up body parts at accidents, they have to have a fund-raiser to pay for a new truck."

Board members also grappled with how to apply the tax equally across the county and how to determine which properties should be included in which districts. In the end, commissioners eliminated all questions by removing the fire tax proposal from the Smart Growth plan.

"These are just guidelines," Denton said about the plan. "They can be further defined as we go along."

Back to Archive: 08/01/02.