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Lealman Fire Board rushes to choose tax method
By ANNE LINDBERG © St. Petersburg Times, published August 23, 2000 LEALMAN -- The Fire Board plans to choose a taxing method for the district Thursday. It appears it will be a shot in the dark. The rush to achieve independence as a taxing district has put board members in a bind. They have to declare a taxing method for the November ballot. The result is they have left themselves too little time to hire an expert to research the wisest choice. One of the hard-to-figure variables in Lealman's future is the effect of possible annexations. A massive land grab this summer cut into Lealman's tax base when Seminole took over acreage and businesses along Park Street on the district's western border. While Lealman will provide fire service to those areas, Seminole will collect the taxes. That has hurt Lealman's bottom line. Lealman already has eliminated four positions -- a training officer, a part-time file clerk, a lieutenant and a paramedic -- by not filling the vacancies as employees left. Any future annexations would reduce the tax base further and eventually lead to layoffs, Lealman fire Chief Gary Wolff said. Board members will decide between two taxing methods. One is using the ad valorem tax rate that Lealman currently uses. Almost all other fire districts and cities use this method, in which land owners pay taxes based on the value of their property. That value is set by Pinellas County. Or the Fire Board itself can set the rates. Board members could assess homes based on square footage, meaning smaller homes would pay a lower tax than owners of larger houses. Businesses could be taxed similarly. It's unclear which method would be more beneficial for the average taxpayer, said Dick Pauk, the director of real property in the Pinellas County Tax Appraiser's Office. The benefits would depend on what measure board members decide to use if they choose the assessment style of taxation. One possible downside of the assessment is the elimination of homestead, disability and other exemptions, Pauk said. Under the ad valorem method, the homeowner is allowed to reduce the amount of taxes by deducting a $25,000 homestead exemption from the property value. Disabled people also can claim exemptions. Under the assessment method, those exemptions would be unavailable, Pauk said. Poor people living in the lowest-valued houses could pay more in taxes, depending on the rate. Wolff agreed it's hard to know which would be the better method for determining taxes for both residents and the fire service. To know for sure, the Fire Board would need to hire an accountant or auditor to look at the entire district and compare the two methods. But that won't happen, Wolff said. An accountant would not have time to make that evaluation. The board must make a decision by the end of this month so it can appear on the November ballot. Without the accountant's evaluation, Wolff agreed, the board will be making a blind decision Thursday. The change in the taxing method lies in Lealman's drive to be an independent taxing district. Under the current system, Lealman is a private not-for-profit agency run by a publicly elected board. The county contracts with the board to oversee fire service for the Lealman area. Last year, Lealman firefighters realized they were ineligible for state retirement and long-term disability payments because they were employed by a private rather than public agency. Lealman was unable to pay the cost of equivalent benefits. At first, the Lealman board considered dissolving and turning its fire service over to Pinellas Park. But firefighters and some Lealman area residents wanted to turn the fire service over to St. Petersburg, which costs substantially more. Instead of merging, the Lealman board asked the Legislature to grant status as an independent fire district that could raise its own taxes. The Legislature approved that this year. The meeting Thursday is at 6:30 p.m. at Fire Station 18, 4017 56th Ave. N.
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