OVIEDO, Fla. – Oviedo residents may have to pay a mandatory fee to cover the costs of their local fire department.
The city council is meeting on Monday to vote on creating a new fire assessment district, which would collect money from property owners to fund firefighters’ salaries, equipment and operation costs.
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Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek said the fire department has been severely underfunded for years.
“No. 1 and No. 2 purposes of government, of creating a local government, (...) is to provide public safety, police and fire,” Sladek said.
But Sladek said the city hasn’t collected enough in property taxes to cover public safety costs for the last 14 years. She said last year the city was short $2 million of its $5.4 million public safety budget.
“The last time we collected enough in property taxes to cover our first responders was 2008. Since then, we have not done it again,” Sladek said.
The mayor said property values went down after the crash in 2008. Couple that with homestead and portability exemptions, and Sladek said the city hasn’t been able to fully fund first responders.
“Once your value is locked in it, the assessed value can only go up 3% annually. So everybody’s properties tanked and we have never been able to recoup that value and we never will,” she said.
Add in the rising costs for public safety and Sladek said Oviedo has been in the red for years. The deficit has prompted city leaders to defund other non-critical budget items to fund first responders.
But Sladek said it is time to change that.
“14 years of not collecting enough, the jig is up,” she said.
The fire assessment district under consideration by Oviedo’s city council would create a mandatory fee for property owners within city limits to fund the fire department.
Sladek said the city is still working on how the fee would be structured, but it will likely be based on the size of one’s home. She said it could range from $180 to $350 a year.
Sladek ran for mayor on the platform of not raising taxes, but she said she feels like this fee is necessary.
“I feel like it’s the only fiscally responsible thing to do in light of the reality that we are not collecting enough to cover public safety,” she said.
The city council is holding a public hearing on the fire assessment district Monday. If the district is approved, Sladek said there will public discussions held on how to set up the fee.
Click here to learn more about the fire assessment district.