The Wright City Fire Protection District has pieced together a balanced budget for 2016 based on projections, but officials have many financial concerns moving forward.Fire Chief Ron MacKnight said the district has “little room to spare” as expenses continue to climb and revenues remain mostly flat. That has led the district’s board of directors to discuss the possibility of asking voters for a tax increase, but no decision has been made.“It will be super tight for a lot of reasons,” MacKnight told The Record.For the calendar year, the district has projected $843,295 in revenues and expenditures. It finished 2015 with a net income of $58,638, with revenues at $876,189 and expenditures at $817,551.The district received a boost financially with the sale of surplus equipment, which generated over $42,000 in unexpected additional revenue. The equipment was considered to be either past its service life or no longer in compliance with national standards, MacKnight said.For 2016, the district does not have the ability to sell surplus equipment should revenues fall below projections, MacKnight noted.“I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but when you start adding the sale of surplus equipment into revenue, that becomes a problem,” he said.“We got some aging equipment,” he added. “Some of the stuff is getting to where we have to pour money in our maintenance costs and I’m concerned eventually we will have to buy some new equipment. I just don’t know how we are going to do it.”The district anticipates receiving $799,895 in property taxes from both Warren and Lincoln counties, a small increase from 2015. The remaining $43,000 will come from other areas, including $20,000 estimated from billing non-residents for emergency calls.In 2015, the district implemented the new procedure and collected $11,354.Personnel expenses account for 66 percent of the district’s budget. Of that amount, $410,770 is for salaries, an increase from $376,085 in 2015. With the exception of MacKnight, the other eight full-time staff members are receiving a raise, including six firefighters who are getting a 4-percent bump in their pay as part of their union contract.The district’s health insurance also went up substantially, with $86,725 estimated to be spent this year compared to $69,976 in 2015. The district pays 100 percent of monthly premiums for employees and 50 percent for dependents.For capital expenses, the district anticipates that figure decreasing this year to $101,800 from $132,596.MacKnight said the district’s financial position could be affected by any type of large unexpected expense.The district encompasses approximately 92 square miles in the northeast portion of Warren County and southern portion of Lincoln County. The agency’s call volume has gone from 528 in 2013 to 578 in 2015.Before a decision is made on whether or not to move forward with a tax increase, MacKnight said a needs assessment will be conducted first to determine if a measure is a viable solution.“We have been under budget and tightening our belt helps,” MacKnight said. “But as expenditures keep rising, the cost of doing business rises, we cannot maintain our equipment and we’re running short staff. We truly need a third person on the fire truck, but we can’t sustain it right now.”Wright City Fire Protection District