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Fee hike defeat at polls puts fire district on brink

The fire department serving several beach towns is facing bankruptcy.

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published November 12, 2006

Voters' sharp rejection Tuesday of a proposed increase in fire service fees leaves the Pinellas Suncoast Fire and Rescue District less than a year to find a financial solution before facing virtual bankruptcy.

The fire district is already dipping into its savings to operate and expects to be more than $500,000 in the red at the end of the current fiscal year next October.

Once its savings are used up, in 2008, the state Legislature may be forced to step in and close the department. State law prevents the district from borrowing money for general operation.

Now the district's board of commissioners has no choice but to approach voters again in the spring and hope for a different result - by a more than 63 percent margin, voters Tuesday issued a resounding "no" to a $70 increase in yearly residential and commercial fire fees.

The current $190 annual fee was approved by voters in 2003. Under its charter, the fire district cannot raise fire fees without the consent of voters in its district.

But in 2004, another proposed fee increase was fought successfully by city and town officials who argued the fire district was mismanaged and improperly spending money outside the district boundaries.

That criticism led to a formal investigation of the fire district by Pinellas County and representatives of the beach communities of Indian Shores, Indian Rocks Beach, Belleair Beach and Belleair Shore. The district includes those beach towns as well as a portion of the unincorporated mainland south of Walsingham Road.

That investigation, which is now virtually complete, resulted in a report that suggested several ways the fire district could save money - but fell short of fully substantiating the original criticism.

Ironically, the beach communities pledged this time to support the fire district's proposed rate increase. But voters apparently still did not think the increase was warranted.

If the fire district cannot persuade voters to change their minds in March, the only other option to keep the district operating may be a charter change that would allow the district to raise fees without a referendum.

A similar proposal failed to generate any support last year among the county's legislative delegation.

But if the Legislature, instead, closes the department and distributes its fire services among surrounding fire departments, voters could find themselves paying for fire services through property taxes - an amount that for most property owners would be much more than the flat yearly fire fee they rejected Tuesday.

[Last modified November 11, 2006, 19:49:20]