LAKE COUNTY — Local fire districts are facing mounting financial troubles that will need more than just added tax revenue to lay to rest, according to a recently released report by the Lake County Civil Grand Jury of 2018-2019.
Though three of Lake County’s six fire districts have successfully passed parcel tax hikes since 2017—signifying public support is likely for upcoming tax measures in the remaining three districts—the grand jury argues that success in raising taxes won’t make for balanced budgets in the long run.
The benefit of an increased tax rate alone, the grand jury writes in its report, titled “Lake County’s Fire Protection Districts: Keep Calm and Carry On,” won’t “solve the districts’ budgetary shortfalls, as other factors are also at play, some reflecting long-term trends and demanding long-term solutions.”
Beginning in 2017, the Lake County Fire Protection District, then the South Lake County and Lakeport fire districts each passed parcel tax increases for property owners in their service areas. Joining the trend, the Northshore Fire Protection District proposed a tax that failed in April 2018, but is set to bring another measure before voters in November of this year.
If that measure passes, four of Lake County’s six fire districts will have raised taxes in the last three years. The grand jury states that based on the current “fiscal doldrums” facing all local fire districts, the remaining two districts “inevitably will look to district property owners to increase their parcel taxes.”
But this won’t fully address the complex financial problems facing these districts, the grand jury argues. Ongoing loss of revenues from often un-repaid ambulance services, unpredictable pension liabilities, suppression of major wildfires, and replacement of old equipment will not be stopped by a tax hike, though the extra tax money will help, the report indicates.
Calls for medical transport make up abut 80 percent of all local fire district responses, but collecting money for those services, according to the grand jury, “can be fraught due to both unreliability of third-party billers and the low reimbursement rates by insurers.”
“Money is lost on every 9-1-1 ambulance call,” the report states, “as the return averages about 20-30 cents on the dollar.”
The grand jury recommends that the local fire districts look into the possibility of adding extra fees to its ambulance bills in order to account for this low rate of payment.
Highlighting the Lake Pillsbury Fire Protection District in the first-ever grand jury investigation of the all-volunteer fire department located in northern Lake County, the jury suggests that district consider seeking the qualifications necessary to be able to bill for its emergency medical services. As an all-volunteer department, the Lake Pillsbury district currently cannot legally charge for ambulance rides.
The district’s $18,000 budget, the grand jury notes, may not be met following a low tax revenue amount of just $16,200. The grand jury suggests that the district consider a tax increase, but notes that an effective increase would also see the district working with County of Lake officials to develop a new tax system that could incorporate properties currently not being taxed but which receive services from the district.
The grand jury cites “a number of additional challenges” the LPFPD is facing, due largely to its remote location amid miles of national forest, its tourism-driven seasonal ebb and flow of residents, and its volunteer status.
To assist this underprivileged district, the grand jury recommends the County of Lake help it develop a new tax structure and add the district to the Fire Risk Reduction Authority joint powers authority. The FRRA, a wildfire focused decision-making body, developed earlier this year, currently includes all five other fire districts in the county, but not Lake Pillsbury.
Discussing the Lakeport Fire District, which has undergone a tumultuous financial crisis that saw six firefighters laid off due to budget shortfalls in 2018 and the passage of a significant tax increase this year, the grand jury notes that Lakeport is the only fire district in the county whose board of directors is appointed rather than elected. The grand jury recommends the board be altered to an elective format.
The full grand jury report can be found here.
