The Warrenton Fire Protection District is asking voters to consider a scaled-back property tax request to help rescue the district’s troubled finances.

The fire district has placed a 15-cent property tax increase on the April election ballot. The tax increase would cost most homeowners an extra $28 to $70 per year on their residential property tax. The district estimates a yearly revenue increase of $429,000.

The decision to once again go to voters with a property tax request comes shortly after the fire district announced it will sell its Pendleton station to help cover operating expenses. District officials say the tax increase would stabilize their finances for at least the next five years, and that continued community growth could support the district even further into the future.

It has been 20 years since the Warrenton fire district received a tax increase. That tax increase was designed to support a paid firefighting staff that’s about 1/3 the size of the district’s current staff.

District officials outlined key funding objectives in their announcement of the tax proposition. Some of those include:

• Reestablish facility and vehicle maintenance and other critical expenses that have been cut due to budget shortfalls.

• Double the current volunteer firefighter staff with funds for training and equipment.

• Hire up to three additional career firefighters.

• Rebuild the district’s reserve fund and avoid further sale of property.

Fire Chief Anthony Hayeslip said the district’s current revenue doesn’t support its staffing needs to serve a growing area. He said a growing problem is only having one crew to respond when multiple emergency calls come in at once, and backup needs to be called from other districts.

“I dread the day when somebody’s waiting an extra 3-4 minutes for help because we’re short of manpower. I know it happens, but it happens too frequently,” Hayeslip said. “In our size district, we should be doing better than that.”

Hayeslip said he hopes to grow the volunteer roster to the point of having days where a second crew, made of volunteers, can be on shift and responding to calls. But it still takes money to train, equip and support volunteers, and the district doesn’t have enough unding for the services it currently provides.

If the fire district doesn’t get a revenue increase, Hayeslip said leaders will have to continue scraping away at what few cuts are left until they get to the last resort of laying off firefighters.

“We can’t respond (to fires and crashes) if we don’t have people. We have to do everything in our power to make sure we have people riding on that truck,” Hayeslip said. “Someday there may be a reduction in service. That’s a reality. But we don’t want to do that.”

How much would taxes go up?

Property tax rates are based on each $100 in the assessed value of real estate and personal property. And because of the way taxes are structured in Missouri, the assessed value of property is significantly less than its real market value.

For each $100,000 in the market value of a home, this tax proposition would ask homeowners to pay an additional $28.50 in annual taxes.

So for a $250,000 home, the annual tax would increase by $71.25.

For personal property, taxes would increase by $5 for each $10,000 in the market value of the property.

Click the PDF document link below for more information and the full press release from Warrenton Fire Protection District.