Slight fire tax hike OK’d

A Clinton City district fire tax increase has moved forward for county commissioners review and consideration following an approval from Clinton City Council this week.

Discussion regarding the fire tax was covered during Council’s Tuesday night meeting during a public hearing “to receive citizens’ input regarding a service tax rate matter of .2 cent and a proposed tentative fiscal year 2025-26 budget for Clinton Fire Department.”

Alongside the public hearing was the consideration of adopting a resolution to request an increase in the Clinton Fire Protection Service District tax rate, which was passed unanimously.

“This is a complicated, at best, legal issue, and I’ve asked our chief (Hagan Thornton) to talk about it, and our lawyer (Joel Starling) and city manager (James Duncan) can say a few words as well,” Clinton Mayor Lew Starling said. “We want to be very clear on this matter because we have another motion that comes after that. With that said, I ask, Mr. lawyer, do you want to say anything about this as we open the public hearing, because again, this is a technical matter.”

Attorney Starling said the fire tax is part of a requirement City Council must set for its fire service districts and the public hearing was a part of that since a rate change was being proposed.

“This is complicated, and so, there are a number of county fire service districts that the county Board of Commissioners created,” he said. “One of them is the Clinton fire tax district. It envelops the city of Clinton, but it doesn’t actually cover the corporate limits of Clinton, and that was created by the Board of County Commissioners.

“We are required, as part of their process in setting fire tax rates every year, to have a public hearing and go to them if the district is requesting a rate change, where the fire department services the district,” the attorney added. “You’re having a public hearing on whether or not to ask the commissioners to adjust the rate. You cannot change the rate, only the county commissioners can do that. So it would go from here to the fire commission, which is an advisory body, and then to the county commissioners.”

Mayor Starling asked Thornton to explain the reason for the requested rate change, and it’s intended purpose.

“We would be raising the fire tax rate from .8 cent on the $100 to .10 cent on the hundred in just the rural district,” the fire chief said. “And that money would be used for maintenance, equipment, turnout gear and things like that, for our personnel.”

Duncan added, “I will say that the emphasis behind this request that we would make of the county is for costs going up over the past few years.”

The other tricky component of the request, Joel Starling noted, was the need for a public hearing on the city’s rural district proposed budget, which was another requirement.

“The second issue is the city of Clinton has a contract with Sampson County” he began. “It’s not exactly the same as the contract that volunteer fire departments have, but like volunteer fire departments, they have a contract with the county. Pursuant to that contract, they provide fire services in this district, which is more expensive than the city limits or the city ETJ.”

An ETJ stands for extraterritorial jurisdiction, and those zones help cities manage growth by exercising jurisdiction outside city limits.

“As part of that process, they (county commissioners) want you, if you’re asking for a rate change, to have a public hearing on that and a public hearing on your proposed budget that you send them,” the attorney added. “You’re having a public hearing on your proposed budget, but understand, you’re not adopting your budget right now. You can only do that through your public hearing process, which typically takes place in June when you actually set your budget. This is something you’re doing to comply with the county’s requirements from the fire commission to adopt fire department budgets.”

“It would be your advice that we have one motion that encompasses both, the .8(cent) to .10(cent) increase and the proposed budget” Mayor Starling asked.

“Yes sir, we’ve got a resolution prepared for the Council to consider, and it’ll address both of those things,” attorney Starling replied. “Though we probably need to have some discussion about the proposed budget for the department.”

The floor was turned over to Thornton who gave his estimates.

“So the budget would raise roughly $200,000, this would roughly bring our estimated total budget for the rural district area from $641,000 to $802,000.”

“We would then allocate that money at a later time during the budget process, but for now we’re just trying to meet the law on this,” Mayor Starling added.

The public hearing talks concluded afterward following no further questions from Council or the public. Mayor Starling then requested a motion on the resolution and proposed budget, which received unanimous approval.