CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald | Posted: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 11:00 pm
Facing hefty firefighting bills, Cedar Fort is looking to double property taxes.
The town of 380 people has not had a property tax increase since 1986, said Mayor Howard Anderson. The Town Council is proposing to double the property tax and residents are invited to give their opinion at a public hearing tonight. The tax on a $150,000 home would increase from $40.51 a year to $78.71.
The town already was struggling to pay a $10,000 bill from a quarter-acre lightning-strike fire last year on a mountaintop behind the town, which required a state helicopter to drop water, he said. Last month, a fire burned several hundred acres and required state and federal assistance. The town's portion of that bill will be about $180,000, he said.
The town's entire firefighting budget for the year is $24,000, he said.
The fire expenses are "what is driving this," said Town Councilwoman Machelle Clegg of the tax hike. Once the city can settle those bills, the tax increase will be needed to improve roads and the town's water system.
In the past, the state has paid to fight fires on its land, even if the land was within city boundaries. That has now changed, said Barbara Gardner of the state Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands. In addition to specially trained teams of firefighters, the state may send in planes and helicopters to drop water, which can be expensive. A single tanker plane, for example, could cost $4,000 to $10,000 an hour.
State law has always said that the state would only pay for firefighting outside city limits, said Dick Buehler, area manager of the Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands. His agency had discussed shifting the costs to cities before but decided to seek guidance from the Utah Attorney General's Office before proceeding. When the attorney general agreed with the division's opinion, the state decided it would no longer pay for firefighting within city boundaries.
Because it is impossible to know when and where a fire may strike, and how much it may cost, even large cities have trouble budgeting for fires under the new ruling, but for small towns like Cedar Fort, the costs hurt, Anderson said.
"It is really causing a mess," he said.
Town Council members are expected to vote on the tax increase at their regular meeting on Aug. 26, he said.
"If we have a lot of negative input [at the public hearing] we will take that into account," he said. "We only have a small budget, and we are struggling as it is. This tax increase is important because it should keep us solvent. I shouldn't say that. I mean keep us fiscally responsible."
Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 or cwarnock@heraldextra.com.
Cedar Fort will hold a public hearing on a proposal to double property taxes tonight at 7 p.m. at the Cedar Fort Community Center, 372 S. 100 East, Cedar Fort.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C4.