After finding out earlier this year that putting a 2-mill referendum on the ballot would be too costly to seek funding for the county’s volunteer fire departments, representatives spoke with the Marion County Board of Supervisors seeking 1 mill to help support their efforts.
Chief Cole Robbins of the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department and Doug Miller with the Southwest Marion Volunteer Fire Department spoke as chiefs, and representatives from the county’s other volunteer departments showed support for the measure.
“We have come to the conclusion that the easiest, most effective way to increase funding would be to ask for a 1-mill, county-wide tax increase,” Robbins told the board. “We are saving people insurance money on their houses and we’re providing a service that is actually directly affecting them. We save people money. County-wide we (all of the departments) received $214,000, $60,000 in fire protection district tax and about $115,000 from state insurance rebate fund. That’s $389,000 county-wide, that’s all the departments. That’s not per department, it’s divided five ways.”
A 1-mill increase would cost the owner a $100,000 home about $10 per year, and Robbins said it would be a good deal considering what the departments do for the county.
“If we were to put in paid fire departments in all of these areas, we’d be looking at about $3.4 million in payroll in additional costs,” he said. “We also have a lot of pine trees in Marion County, and we responded to 160 woodland fire calls last year. If you would say that we saved an average of five acres per call, which adds up, we saved about $320,000 worth of pines last year. That’s based on 800 acres at about $400 per acre. The forestry commission has reduced the personnel and equipment so we’re doing a lot of the woodland firefighting as well.”
Robbins said the largest savings, however, is insurance to homeowners.
“If all the departments shut down or lost their ratings, there would be county-wide about $2.93 million in increases on homeowners insurance,” he said.
Ratings go from a Class 10, which is the worst on up. Most departments are at least a Class 9, Foxworth and Southwest are a Class 8 and Tri-Community a Class 7, among the volunteer departments. The full-time Columbia Fire Department is currently a Class 6.
“We also provide lifesaving EMS services,” Robbins said. “Sometimes it takes an ambulance a long time to get out into different points in the county, and we can be there to save lives until they get there. Weather-related events, we were out yesterday on a tree down call and Southwest had an accident going on. We had a tree across Mississippi 44, and we cleared it out. We’re providing a service that is directly saving people money. We’re asking for just a little bit of help to maintain that.”
“Nobody wants their taxes to go up,” Miller said. “If I say raise taxes, then my own taxes go up. For example, 1 mill is approximately $10 on a $100,000 home. Several years ago at Southwest Marion we went from a 10 to a 9 and now down to an 8. My personal insurance savings is about $800 a year now versus my having to contribute $10 or $15. People don’t like to hear taxes are going up, but that is a way to justify those taxes.”
The firefighters cited cost increases with new trucks, which are required to help keep the classifications, going up from a cost of about $150,000 a few years ago to more than $250,000 currently.
“A lot of our departments have aging equipment that will eventually have to be put out of service because it won’t serve it’s purpose anymore,” Miller said. “We’re evaluating ways to eliminate spending. Tri-Community is looking at ways to eliminate tankers. At Southwest Marion, we’ve eliminated a truck that was used for rescue by using one of our fire engines that can carry the rescue tools. We’re looking at ways to be more efficient, but it’s not working out that way.”
Robbins said his department hopes to cut three trucks from its fleet soon.
“We have no choice,” he said. “We’re looking for every possible way to save money. We’re looking to maintain what we have, but everybody’s in the same shape.”
Robbins and Miller emphasized that county leaders and the public needed an understanding of the real value of volunteer fire departments, which was why they were speaking out. They also made the board aware that the number of volunteers is facing a downward trend, which could end with higher costs if paid firefighters were hired.
“Marion County is blessed to have volunteer firefighters that train and respond 24/7 to supply this needed service to the county with no pay,” Robbins said. “Yet with our improved service comes increased operation and capital costs. Our departments will not be able to maintain our level of service and the safety of our volunteers without increased funding.”
The group then submitted the proposal of a 1-mill county fire tax increase, which was signed by Foxworth, Tri-Community, Morgantown, Southwest, South Marion and Pine Burr fire departments.
The county board took the proposal under advisement but did not make comment or take action.
