Letters to the Editor
Midway Fire District defends prior purchases

This is in response to your letter to the editor last week regarding Midway Fire District's request for a Fire Assessment Fee. The reason for the District moving to a Fire Assessment Fee has nothing to do with prior purchases which are addressed below but are a result of proposed changes in doubling the Homestead exemption. With regards to our budget, 62 percent of the budget go towards personnel cost. Not one third as you wrote in your article.

Purchases:

Command Bus- Donation from School Board. The cost to paint and equip with radio's came to close to $20,000 with the work being done by one of the Commissioners who donated over 100 hours of his time.

Ladder Truck - paid for by Impact fees, which by State Statute can not be used for personnel cost.

Fire Safety House (Smoke House) - FEMA Grant with District match $6,800.

Auto Pulse (CPR Machine) - a rebuilt machine at a cost of $13,000 purchased prior to any proposal to double the Homestead exemption. Since you were a volunteer firefighter you know the importance of high quality CPR.

The total amount of this equipment would not pay for one firefighter for one year.

Stephen Demeter

Fire Chief Midway Fire District Vote 'no' on assessment fee

This is a letter to ask the 6,253 Residents in the Midway Fire District with a Homestead Exemption on their Property to vote "NO" to the Midway Fire District proposed flat fee and tax.

If you are one of those residents, you have been the victim of a scam that has been running since 1990. The Midway Fire District does not recognize your Homestead Exemption. More than that, MFD levies and collects tax on your Homestead Exemption.Please look at your latest tax bill from the Santa Rosa County Tax Collector. It is erroneous at best and false at worse.

The bill appears to show your Homestead Exemption of $25,000 for every public agency in Santa Rosa County. That appearance is a scam. Your bill for Midway Fire District is based on the Assessed Value with No -- that is NO -- Homestead Exemption.

In effect, Midway Fire District has refused to recognize the Homestead Exemption which is applied to every other taxing authority in Santa Rosa County. The only correct figures in the line for Midway Fire District are the Millage of 1.4000 and Taxes Levied. The numbers 25,000 and Taxable Value are wallpaper to cover up the reality underneath.

There is no reason to believe a future fee plus property tax system for Midway Fire Department would be valid. The pledge to lower the millage rate is not legally binding. The old "Gotcha" will remain in place.

Is it enough money to be concerned? At a millage of 1.400, the Fire District in 2007 has collected $35.00 on every $25,000 Exemption times 6,253. That is $218,855 in this year alone. Millions are involved since 1990.

The sky will not fall, nor will the firemaños union throw away over-time, holiday pay, health benefits or pensions if the vague fee plus tax plan is rejected. Your home will be as well protected on the day after this plan is turned down as it was on the day before. Vote "no."

William E. Brooks, Jr.

Gulf Breeze

It is time for fiscal responsibility

Firefighting is a noble, heroic and necessary profession. As a child, my family lived less than a block from the local volunteer fire station complete with the fire siren. I have always honored those who protect us. With that being said, I have grown up and now have to face the reality of the financial times in which we live. Since Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis so much has changed in our community: people have moved away, businesses have come and gone and the residents have come to be more stressed and challenged every day.

There are days when it feels like you can't get a break. Gas prices, milk prices, insurance not to mention taxes have all gone up at a meteoric pace while many of us have faced either job loss or wage cuts. Everywhere you look there are for sale or for rent signs for longer periods of time further giving testimony to the financial strain our community is under. We tighten our belts even more.

It gets harder and harder to find that silver lining.

Recently, Governor Charlie Crist devised a plan for relief from the increasing property taxes we Floridians are paying. Yeah! Finally someone who doesn't have his hands in our checkbook rather putting money back in to our lives. A silver lining? Can we finally loosen our ever tightening belts? We might actually be able to shop in the locally owned shops putting much needed money into our local economy. Alas, it seems as though there is always a bigger elephant who wants your peanuts and along comes all of the government agencies screaming why a property tax cut is terrible and what services we will lose. Why don't these agencies practice belt tightening as we all have.

While I understand that I might be criticized for my opinion, I am upset that the Midway Fire department has also become a larger elephant wanting more peanuts. I am all for fire services and understand the cost of running a Fire department but is the "Fire Department" completely explaining this new Fire Assessment fee? You say, in a pamphlet mailed to all in the Midway Fire District, the fee is not a tax. So, if it is not paid, is a lien placed on your property? You say that for "less than $1 per day" we can have fire protection. Is that fee going to be raised every year or is it set in stone at $224/year. You say that the Board is "committed to reducing the Ad valorem rate " but what wording of the referendum is there to make me believe that this won't change? I feel that there are too many loose ends and a risk of the loss fire protection to be voting so quickly on our future. It is, after all our money that we work hard for.

I understand that the Board of Fire Commissioners has warned that failure of this referendum would lead to the laying off of fire fighters, calls going unanswered etc. BUT, with the passage of the referendum, are you willing to pay more for your movie ticket or bucket of popcorn, more for haircuts, more for other services or goods? In this economy, a small business can't afford these "fees". Taxes, insurance, minimum wage hikes-all of these take a toll on a mom and pop business and if not passed along to the consumer, the business is gone. Then, who would buy the business or building knowing that there is a huge tax and assessment on the building. Why would a business come here and not other parts of the county? It is a snowball effect and I am afraid of the outcome.

I feel as though the Board of Fire Commissioners is forcing us to make a choice: Are you for the fire fighters or against them. If you vote for it, we keep fire fighters and services, if not " better hope that you don't need them". If the vote passes, you are for the new fire station to be built-against it you well, you know. It is a lose/lose situation because you are either paying out more money or you are facing unanswered calls. Why do we need a tax and an assessment. Are the other growing areas of our county charging these same fees?

As voters and county tax payers, it is up to us to make the decision. No matter the out come, it is a time of greater fiscal restraint and responsibility

for everyone.

Randy Compton

Gulf Breeze