City Council decided Monday night to place the new tax on the general election ballot, asking voters to OK the levy that would be in addition to the city’s current 4.65-mill levy.
“The current levy revenues are based upon year 2000 property valuations, and therefore do not provide for increased revenues to cover increase expenditures,” said Fairfield City Manager Mark Wendling.
The levy will help with the operational and capital expenses of the fire department, Wendling said. That includes adding more firefighters.
If the levy does not pass, Wendling said the growing subsidy from the general fund will be required. He said staff will also need to determine if they would continue with the subsidy or would go back to the ballot, and “does not foresee any layoffs.”
Because of the lower tax base, from 2013 to 2015 the department needed to be supplemented by Fairfield’s general fund with a collective $1.6 million. For 2016, it’s projected the fire department will need a $1.2 million supplement.
The last time voters decided on a fire levy request was in 2001. On that ballot, voters allowed the city to combine the separate fire and EMS levies and adjusted the tax rates to then-current property values.
The hope was that move would have made the department self-sustaining, but that didn't happen for a number of reasons, including the state eliminating the personal property tax in 2011.
Fairfield’s fire levy would be one of seven levies expected to be on the Nov. 8 ballot, and six of those are fire levies. Four of the five other fire levies set to be on the ballot includes renewals for Ross and Milford township and the village of New Miami, and a replacement and increase levy for the Hanover Twp.
Liberty Twp. is expected to have a levy on the ballot, but trustees have yet to decide which of three options they’ll move forward with.
The other levy set to be on the November ballot is a substitute levy for the Monroe Local School District.
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