A Times Editorial

Fire district referendum should be in November

A majority of the Hernando County Commission appears agreeable to a referendum that would give the Spring Hill Fire Rescue District independence from the County Commission. The commissioners haven't made a decision yet, but at Tuesday's meeting they did authorize their legal staff to work with the fire district on the wording of a referendum, and to bring the matter back for discussion in early July.

There has not been ample justification, adequate research or meaningful debate on the subject of independence. But that has not stopped the County Commission, which is the Fire Commission's financial overseer, from warming up to the referendum proposal. It is, after all, difficult to argue against giving voters the opportunity to decide an issue, especially an essentially parochial one.

However, the more pressing, and at this point the most important, issue facing the County Commission is on which ballot to place the referendum. Some fire district employees have expressed a preference for the Sept. 10 primary election ballot.

That would be a mistake, and the county commissioners should make it clear to the fire commissioners that they will authorize the referendum only if it is placed on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.

This is an important topic for the 52,201 registered voters who live within the Spring Hill fire district's boundaries. The immediate ramifications will be negligible, but in a few years it could result, if approved, in an increase in what residents pay for their emergency services, the unfettered expansion of the district's work force and equipment inventory, and perhaps even changing the elected fire commissioners' status from volunteer to paid positions.

On the other hand, if voters defeat the fire commission's bid for independence, it could leave the district vulnerable to a takeover attempt from the County Commission one day.

Putting aside the merits and rhetoric of the question for the time being, this much is clear: A majority of the fire district's voters should decide the issue, and that will not happen if the referendum is held in September, when far fewer voters go to the polls.

In 2000, almost three times as many people (65,500, or 68.5 percent of the county's registered voters) cast ballots in the general election in November, than they did the primary election two months earlier (21,036, or 22.5 percent).

The statistics from 2000 are not an anomaly; they are comparable to the turnouts from elections in 1998, 1996 and 1994.

In addition to the low turnouts in the September primary, it is important to note that hardly any of the residents who vote then are nonpartisan. By design, the primary attracts registered Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Other voters, although they are the fastest-growing segment of county voters, have little incentive to trek to the polls. This September, the only nonpartisan races are for the School Board. It is not likely those contests, even when coupled with a referendum that affects only a fraction of the county's registered voters, would boost the turnout of no-party voters.

Moreover, Hernando County has approximately 20,000 winter residents, most of whom have not returned by the September primary election. It is not certain how many of those live in the Spring Hill fire district, but common sense dictates a proportionate number would live in the county's most densely populated region.

The only way to ensure a representative mandate of their constituents is for the Fire Commission and the County Commission to agree to place the independence referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot. That also happens to be when voters in Spring Hill elect their fire commissioners. But more important, it ensures the most people affected by the outcome will make the decision.

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