Chiefs plea: Don’t cut fire tax

Sampson County fire officials, including area fire chiefs and others with a vested interest in emergency response, are urging county leaders to keep fire tax rates exactly where they are for the upcoming 2024-25 budget in order to maintain operations for what they said has become an increasingly arduous effort in recent years to sustain local volunteer departments.

Several spoke during the public comment section of this week’s Sampson County Board of Commissioners meeting, many delivering the same message: Don’t reduce the fire tax rates. Those pleas came in response to grumblings of a possible move to get “revenue neutral” with anticipated property value increases amid revaluation.

“We all deal with this every year and with this budget year, has come the revaluations — and there has been some talk with the county manager, and the possibility of cutting our fire taxes has been mentioned,” said Ken Jackson, fire chief at the Plain View Volunteer Fire Department and an official with the Sampson County Fire Association.

“Every guy standing on this wall tonight is a representative of every fire department in Sampson County,” said Jackson, pointing to the many who were standing around the County Auditorium during the commissioners’ meeting. “They’re here tonight to request that you do not cut our fire taxes.”

Last year, the Sampson County Board of Commissioners advanced the next property reappraisal to Jan. 1, 2024, with the additional stipulation — following a state recommendation — that a revaluation would be conducted every four years after that, cutting in half the amount of time between revaluations, which have historically been done every eight years.

Prior to this year, the county conducted its last revaluation in 2019. The next one was previously scheduled for Jan. 1, 2027, however that was bumped up with last year’s action.

Every fire district in Sampson County has fire tax rates set up by the people in those respective districts, Jackson stated. It is voted by them before it is taken to each fire district’s board of directors and then brought to commissioners, who approve the comprehensive countywide list.

“Some of us are at 10 cents, some of us are at 7 cents, some of us are at 7 and a half,” said Jackson. Nearly all of Sampson’s fire districts fall somewhere in that 7-10 cents per $100 valuation range. “We can’t cut our tax rate. We worked hard to get it. I understand the revaluation made a difference, but these tax rates … help us man our stations, so the folks in Sampson County will get adequate fire protection 24 hours a day. We still have departments that are struggling. If we cut their tax rate, we’re going to end up in this process again, asking for that money back.”

Jackson said the fire association was urging that the commissioners come up with a plan in this 2024-25 budget that did not include a cut to the fire tax rates.

Bruce McLamb, a retired volunteer fire department employee, said he worked in that capacity for more than 20 years.

“The day of volunteer fire departments is over,” said McLamb. “We cannot maintain our status to have our homeowners have lower house insurance by not having all volunteers. People work. You just can’t do it. You’re going to have to go part time, at least, to have a response time that is satisfactory to the state to keep our homeowners’ (insurance premiums) low.”

McLamb contended that people who opt for paying the fire tax rate as it is, rather than see it drop and their insurance premiums rise.

“You don’t need to mess with that rate,” he implored. “You need to keep it the same. Cost of fire department equipment in the 20 years I’ve been in, some of it has doubled, some of it’s tripled. To get a fire truck now is $850,000, and it takes three years to get it. You don’t need to cut that 10 cents.”

Taylors Bridge Fire Chief Alan Williams, who also serves as the county fire chief, said the term “revenue neutral” has been thrown around in order to justify the cut in fire taxes that Williams and others believe is coming.

“It will not work,” Williams said simply. “You see all these volunteers standing around back here? There’s less than 1% of the population of Sampson County who serves as volunteer firefighters. If you didn’t have the volunteer firefighters, it would cost this county somewhere between $13-$19 million a year just in payroll. You’d have to hire 176 new county employees to do what we do for free. We don’t mind that.”

Last Saturday alone, Williams noted, Taylors Bridge Fire Department responded to six calls — a house fire in Clinton, a woods fire, an assistance call with EMS and three motor vehicle wrecks.

“All we’re asking is to leave the fire tax where it is,” Williams reiterated, noting that support for the current fire tax rates have been given by homeowners, respective fire departments and the commissioners. “We have a 33-year-old truck sitting outside. That truck runs from Halls to Ivanhoe. It is our first-out mutual aid engine. It hauls two firefighters. We don’t want to throw the truck away. We want to re-purpose that truck. We want to move it down toward Delway, maybe pick up part of Duplin County in the process to serve the citizens down there who are still outside the district.”

Williams says it’s going to cost $850,000 to replace that truck. The department, according to Williams, has a zero-interest, 10-year loan to do just that.

“We’re just asking you to leave our fire tax alone,” Williams stated.

Patrick Blanchard, president of Mingo Grange, presented a resolution to the board that was adopted by the Mingo-based community organization. It was in reference to the property revaluation, which he said has grown more frequent, and costly, to homeowners, but sans the additional services that he and others said should come with that boost.

“The citizens will face an indirect increase in tax burden without the raising of the tax rate,” Blanchard stated, reading from the Mingo Grange resolution. “Our taxes almost never go down and the quality of services to the townships near seems to truly improve. Let it be known that we, the members of the Mingo Grange, having love for our homes and our rural way of life, that we have made choices and sacrifices to remain in the home of our grandfathers; and furthermore, wish to preserve our homes and hearths for future generations of our families.”

“The Grange urges the Board of Commissioners to seriously consider a reduction of the tax rate to help offset the burden of rural property owners who no longer actively farm their ancestral lands, but in an effort to maintain these heirlooms, must rent out to produce funds for payment of said taxes and insurance,” Blanchard continued.

“We urge the commissioners to seek ways to provide the basic infrastructure that is necessary for public health and safety, and at the same time, cut from the budget all items that do not improve the situation of all citizens,” he stated, reading from the resolution. “We urge the commissioners to work in harmony with the citizens of this county in order to find solutions to the issues we face. In that regard we offer whatever assistance we can provide to help make our home better. We urge the commissioners to make hard decisions in order to help keep our farms and forests, while remembering that the government that governs least, governs best. We simply ask for the opportunity to maintain the rural and simple lifestyle we were taught to love.”

County manager Ed Causey will present the recommended 2024-25 budget on May 20 at 6 p.m. in the County Auditorium A public hearing on the budget will be held during the Sampson County Board of Commissioners regular meeting on June 3.

Causey alluded to an in-depth budget presentation that was awaiting commissioners and the public.

“We have tried to accomplish the budget presentations in a half hour or less in previous years; I would encourage you to be prepared for at least an (hour-long) presentation,” Causey told commissioners this week. “If I can get done in an hour and 15 minutes, I will be tickled. We have a lot of information to talk about and present. I think that will give you a lot of good background for whatever you may decide to do with a host of issues.”