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Emergency Services District No. 4 seeks tax rate increase
By JAKE MUONIO
Needham Fire and Rescue is looking help paying its bills.
The fire service, which responds to emergency calls in Emergency Service District 4, which includes Shenandoah and other property to the north and east of The Woodlands, will be asking voters for help in May 2009.
Residents in ESD 4 will be asked to approve a $0.02 sales tax, which will go into effect in the unincorporated portion of the district. There will be no additional sales tax implemented in the portion of ESD 4 that is in Shenandoah.
The additional tax is expected to bring $150,000-$200,000 a year in to the ESD and Needham.
“We’re in sort of a unique situation, where we have the city of Conroe and The Woodlands Township that have come in and stripped a lot of the commercial district that belonged to district 4 and left us with all the residential property,” said Stephen Dicker, president of the ESD 4 Board of Commissioners.
The “stripping” of commercial districts from ESD’s tax base included Conroe’s annexation of the property along Interstate 45 from the river bridge north of FM 1488 all the way down to Texas 242. Then, about three years ago, The Woodlands brought in the property along Texas 242 from I-45 to FM 1488 - with the exception of Lone Star College – Montgomery which pays no property taxes, Dicker said.
Those annexations transferred the burden of paying for the fire service in the remainder of ESD 4 from people shopping in the area to the property owners, he said.
“We have lost all of that (with the exception of the commercial properties in Shenandoah) over the last two years, in between those two agencies,” Dicker said. “It caused us to have a deficit. We’re operating with a deficit this year because of it.”
Needham Fire Department, Dicker said, has already been forced to make some cuts to its number of paid firefighters. The cuts, from eight paid employees per shift to six, are one way NFD is trimming its operating deficit in the upcoming year’s budget from more than $200,000 to $103,000.
To make up for the staffing shortage, all of the volunteer fire fighters – many of which work paid shifts for the department as well – are being required to work at least one 12-hour volunteer shift a week. As a result, sometimes as many as three of Needham’s four stations are staffed on any given night.
On days when staffing levels are lower, the fire fighters respond from NFD’s main station on Texas 242, Dicker said.
If voters approve the taxing authority in the unincorporated areas of ESD 4, the additional revenue allow NFD to restore a portion of the $300,000 in total cuts the department made from its budget for 2008-2009 budget.
“We would be able to put a few people back into the mix to better protect the district,” Dicker said. The remainder of the revenue would go toward other aspects of the organization’s operations, he said.
In addition to asking voters to approve the sales tax increase, ESD 4 also plans to increase its property tax rate on residential properties from $0.0937 per $100 valuation to the state-allowed maximum of $0.10 per $100.
“At this point we’ll be OK (for the upcoming year) and be able to hold our own,” Dicker said. “The biggest thing with the tax increase is a lot of folks that come through the district don’t pay any tax but use the services, they have accidents and stuff. But they all shop in the different areas, they stop and get gas or soda, so this will help the citizens of the district defray some of the costs of that service.”
The fire service, which responds to emergency calls in Emergency Service District 4, which includes Shenandoah and other property to the north and east of The Woodlands, will be asking voters for help in May 2009.
Residents in ESD 4 will be asked to approve a $0.02 sales tax, which will go into effect in the unincorporated portion of the district. There will be no additional sales tax implemented in the portion of ESD 4 that is in Shenandoah.
The additional tax is expected to bring $150,000-$200,000 a year in to the ESD and Needham.
“We’re in sort of a unique situation, where we have the city of Conroe and The Woodlands Township that have come in and stripped a lot of the commercial district that belonged to district 4 and left us with all the residential property,” said Stephen Dicker, president of the ESD 4 Board of Commissioners.
The “stripping” of commercial districts from ESD’s tax base included Conroe’s annexation of the property along Interstate 45 from the river bridge north of FM 1488 all the way down to Texas 242. Then, about three years ago, The Woodlands brought in the property along Texas 242 from I-45 to FM 1488 - with the exception of Lone Star College – Montgomery which pays no property taxes, Dicker said.
Those annexations transferred the burden of paying for the fire service in the remainder of ESD 4 from people shopping in the area to the property owners, he said.
“We have lost all of that (with the exception of the commercial properties in Shenandoah) over the last two years, in between those two agencies,” Dicker said. “It caused us to have a deficit. We’re operating with a deficit this year because of it.”
Needham Fire Department, Dicker said, has already been forced to make some cuts to its number of paid firefighters. The cuts, from eight paid employees per shift to six, are one way NFD is trimming its operating deficit in the upcoming year’s budget from more than $200,000 to $103,000.
To make up for the staffing shortage, all of the volunteer fire fighters – many of which work paid shifts for the department as well – are being required to work at least one 12-hour volunteer shift a week. As a result, sometimes as many as three of Needham’s four stations are staffed on any given night.
On days when staffing levels are lower, the fire fighters respond from NFD’s main station on Texas 242, Dicker said.
If voters approve the taxing authority in the unincorporated areas of ESD 4, the additional revenue allow NFD to restore a portion of the $300,000 in total cuts the department made from its budget for 2008-2009 budget.
“We would be able to put a few people back into the mix to better protect the district,” Dicker said. The remainder of the revenue would go toward other aspects of the organization’s operations, he said.
In addition to asking voters to approve the sales tax increase, ESD 4 also plans to increase its property tax rate on residential properties from $0.0937 per $100 valuation to the state-allowed maximum of $0.10 per $100.
“At this point we’ll be OK (for the upcoming year) and be able to hold our own,” Dicker said. “The biggest thing with the tax increase is a lot of folks that come through the district don’t pay any tax but use the services, they have accidents and stuff. But they all shop in the different areas, they stop and get gas or soda, so this will help the citizens of the district defray some of the costs of that service.”
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