Fire districts seek financial fuel
One proposal was to raise the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) by 1%. This would generate an additional $240,000, which the six districts would split evenly, said Bishop Fire Chief Ray Seguine.
The proposal was too unpopular among fire district chiefs to pursue any further, Seguine said. Several districts argued that $40,000 was simply too little money to make an impact on the growing gap between fire service revenues and expenditures. That gap is the product of static property tax revenue coupled with rising Emergency Medical Service (EMS) costs, as well as the rising cost of fire service equipment, fuel, and utilities, Seguine explained.
While Bishop contracts with Symons Ambulance for its EMS service, the other Inyo County fire districts are not so fortunate. “When they go to Medicare and Medi-Cal, they’re getting less back,” said Seguine. “That’s where they’re looking at needing more revenue.”
Big Pine Fire Chief Damon Carrington said that the Big Pine Fire District gets about a quarter of its EMS costs recovered through Medicare/Medical reimbursement. That simply isn’t enough, he explained. “Last April to right now, we’ve generated $10,000. The cost of EMS is about $45,000, so we’re in the hole $35,000.”
The total budget for Big Pine fire service and EMS is $220,000, Carrington said. Take away the cost of EMS, and you have $185,000 left. “That’s not much, when new equipment is costing $500,000 for a pumper,” Carrington said.
Lone Pine Fire Chief Leroy Kritz agreed. The Lone Pine Fire District has two separate budgets, one for fire service and one for EMS. Fire service is funded, as in most Inyo County fire districts, by property tax. EMS service “has to be self supported,” Kritz said.
Typically, fire service costs about $150,000 a year, he said. EMS costs about $118,000. “Usually we collect more than that, but in the last three years, we’ve done less,” he said. Halfway through this budget year, “we’ve only collected $30,000,” he added. “That’s why we’re going for a parcel tax.”
The parcel tax is an alternative source of funding that several other districts are looking into, rather than an increase to TOT. However, some districts are against such a tax. Carrington said that the Big Pine Fire District Board of Commissioners “is against it, because of the CalFire fee.”
The controversial CalFire Fire Prevention Benefit Fee was enacted in July 2011, and charges rural residents living outside of local fire districts $150 a year to pay for fire prevention services. Residents living within local fire districts pay $115.
Although the CalFire fee is heading to court as a potentially unconstitutional tax passed without the two thirds vote required by Prop. 13, the fact remains that residents would be hard-pressed to pay a parcel tax in addition to the CalFire fee.
“We didn’t feel the need to go after the locals [with a parcel tax], even if it would be much more money [than TOT],” Carrington said. He estimated that a parcel tax could raise between $70-80,000.
Regardless of the method, Inyo County fire districts will have to find some way to close the gap. If it isn’t EMS placing a burden on local districts, it’s the cost of equipment, fuel and utilities, said Seguine. He recalled that in the 1970s, “you used to buy a fire truck for $70-80,000. Now you can’t touch a new fire truck with less than $500,000.”
This year, the Bishop Rural Fire Protection District projected $295,000 in revenue from property taxes. Yet currently, the District has also projected expenditures of about $372,000. “We’re going to have to go to our reserves to fill that vacancy,” added Seguine.
When asked if the Lone Pine Fire District was budgeting for any new equipment, Leroy Kritz laughed. “Not with the funding we have, no. We can dream.”
Southern Inyo Fire Protection District (SIFPD) has also seen a decline in its annual operating budget. According to SIFPD Administrator Carl Dennett, that budget has dropped from $180,000 to $84,000 over the last five years. Funding comes from Prop. J, a fire assessment proposition.
At 1,200 square miles, SIFPD is the largest fire district in the County. The District operates out a small structure in Tecopa, where vehicles are kept outside in the elements.
Inyo County fire districts will continue to independently assess funding alternatives.
