Council Favors Higher Fire Assessment For Churches, Nonprofit Groups

As the city council plans to renew its annual fire assessments, churches and nonprofit organizations will likely find themselves paying a greater annual fee to get their fire protection.

They have been paying half the institutional rates this year despite complaints from a few pastors last August, but three of the five council members polled by Highlands Today after Monday's council meeting support raising their share of the burden to 75 percent or more.

The council voted unanimously to tentatively approve the new fire assessment rates that would charge churches and nonprofit organizations a full institutional rate, which starts at $179 for a building less than 2,000 square feet. Homeowners would be charged a flat $165 for each housing unit.

They can lower the rates by the Aug. 25 council meeting, even though city Finance Director Renee Green said the council couldn't raise them from Monday's vote, which was the reason the council approved the maximum rate of 100 percent Monday.

Mayor Sharon Schuler said she wanted them to "pay their fair share," which she believed was the full institutional rate. She added that the tax cuts from Amendment 1 would make it necessary.

Councilman George Hall, who is a pastor in a church just outside the city limits, said he would also support bringing it up to 100 percent if the rest of the council agreed, and he would also accept raising it to 75 percent, the number suggested at the July 19 annual city budget workshop.

"I really understood last year that we were going to continue taking it up in increments," Hall said. "It's not something I'm particularly thrilled about... but we have to be able to provide the services that they expect."

Councilman Joe Wright did not go as far as Schuler and described his vote on last year's 50-percent plan as "the toughest vote for me personally." However, he went back to the projections from the budget workshop, where the city plugged in a 75-percent rate, and believed that would be a reasonable amount this time around.

"The city's budget is extremely tight," Wright said. "If we have it in there at 75 percent I'm inclined to support that but of course I will listen at the public hearing."

Councilman Al Joe Hinson disagreed with Wright and Schuler and said he would rather see the churches and non-profit groups exempt from paying the fire assessment, as they were last year.

"I don't really like assessments, but until we find a way to combat that I guess we have to do it and I'm looking for some ways," Hinson said.

Brenda Gray said she was undecided since she has yet to fully consider the issue, and did not elaborate on it further.

The city collected $809,000 for its fire assessment for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. If the city charges the churches and nonprofit organizations 75 percent of the city's institutional rate, it projects collecting about $90,000 from them and $930,000 altogether for the next fiscal year, Green said.