Voters to choose funding
Part two
BY LISA NEWELL Gulf Breeze News lisa@gulfbreezenews.com

Homeowners and residents in the Midway Fire District (MFD) will have the opportunity to decide on Jan. 29 whether to approve a referendum increasing their fire tax by $224.

If MFD's referendum passes, the MFD Commissioners pledge to reduce the ad valorem millage from 1.4 mills to .65 mills.

If the additional $25,000 Homestead Exemption referendum passes on the same date, homesteaded homes will get $50,000 off the taxable value of the homes, saving, on average, $240 per home.

However, MFD's proposed $224 fire levy will apply to each residential unit in the district, whether or not it is homesteaded. Apartments, mobile homes and other residential units will be subject to the levy. The Reserve, an apartment complex in the district, will see its fire assessment increase from $13,476.64 to $39,424 under the plan, with step increases most years. Those costs most likely will be passed along to the apartment dwellers.

MFD is a paid, professional fire district, and is a special taxing district as declared by the Florida legislature. As such, Midway firefighters and EMTs could possibly face significant cuts if the additional $25,000 Homestead Referendum passes, and could mean laying off several staff members and repaying $355,000 of a SAFER grant that is linked to staffing requirements.

"It's going to hurt," said Midway Fire Commissioner Jacque Gorris, adding that in addition to laying off staff members, the district will probably have to close one of their two stations and stop providing Advanced Life Support.

The Midway Fire District is composed of two fire stations, one on College Parkway and one on Abercrombie Road. The ISO Insurance Technology rating for MFD is 5, taking in account the water supply, fire stations, equipment and trained personnel to achieve that level. A discount is applied to insurance for having a low risk.

Angie Batten, Allstate Insurance agent, said the discount for going from an ISO of 5 to a rating of 4 or 3 would result in about a $120 annual savings for a $200,000 home. Gulf Breeze Fire and Rescue, a volunteer fire department, is also rated ISO 5, mainly because it has an excellent water supply, Chief Demeter said. Holley-Navarre Fire District, which became a paid professional district on Jan. 1, was rated ISO 7/9 prior to the move to a paid professional district.

Chief Stephen Demeter said the loss of personnel due to a cut in funding would be "significant."

"Calls would go unanswered," Chief Demeter said. "We get 2,000 calls a year, often three or four at a time."

The cost to homeowners is detailed in a chart, (see "Will Your Taxes Go Up? On page 2A) with average homes seeing an increase of $57.75 per year if Midway's referendum passes and the additional $25,000 Homestead Exemption Referendum fails. That cost is subject to increase annually, based on a clause in the referendum stating that future increases will be linked to the rise in Florida's personal income for the past five years.

Santa Rosa County Property Appraiser Greg Brown estimates that Midway could stand to lose $225,000 if voters statewide approve the additional $25,000 Homestead Exemption. If voters approve Midway's proposal on Jan. 29, the district will increase funding from approximately $2.8 million to $4.6 million as of Jan. 1 of this year, a $1.8 million increase, with businesses bearing a majority of the burden.

Lou Jones, head of MFD's firefighters union, said there's a lot at stake.

"If people make a decision just on numbers, they're not making an educated decision," Jones said.

Because the districts are fully staffed around the clock, they are able to provide additional services to the public, such as Santa runs through the neighborhoods at Christmas time, blood pressure checks, flu shots and an open house for the community.

The district also provides free medical service to those who call 911. The paramedics can stabilize a patient until the county's ambulance service, Lifeguard, can transport the patient to the hospital. Often, the patient's medical emergency can be resolved without a trip to the hospital, and there is no charge from MFD. Many of Midway's medical emergencies occur at the area's nursing homes, which will be assessed at the institutional rate of $49 per square foot. For example, the Bay Breeze Nursing Home currently pays $6,179.78 in fire taxes and will pay $21,000 under the new plan, an increase of 340 percent.

Midway Fire District personnel are fanning out across the district passing out flyers detailing the impact the cuts will have on the department.

Some of the funding from the proposed referendum will be used to build and staff an additional fire station on Central Parkway to accommodate future growth in the district.

Next week: Part Three