3 Fire Departments Trim Budgets By $100K

“Ya’ll said cut and I did,” Winona Volunteer Fire Department Chief Nelson Brumley said as he handed over his amended Fiscal Year 2009-2010 budget request to the Emergency Service District 2 board members.

Three Smith County ESD 2 fire departments cut around $100,000 each within amended budget requests during their second budget workshop Tuesday evening. Volunteer fire department chiefs from Winona, Whitehouse and Troup delivered amended budget requests to the ESD board and were grilled by the panel regarding individual items in an attempt to lower the total budget. The remaining eight departments will submit their budget requests during workshops Thursday evening and on Saturday morning at the ESD office.

More cuts are needed, said ESD 2 board treasurer Teresa Campbell, as the board attempts to reduce the initial $4,548,085 funding request from the 11 volunteer fire departments within the emergency service district. The district’s tax rate was set at 8.5 cents in August 2007 but projections show tax revenue generated will fall short of the requested amount by $200,000, not including overhead for the district.

Funding for the district is down around 2 percent, according to the Smith County Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Michael Barnett. At 2 percent, taxable values within ESD 2 are projected to dip more than $100 million from $5.2 billion in 2008, representing $8.5 million in decreased revenue for the district.

In all, the board is hoping district chiefs can reduce the working budget by $800,000 before adoption in August, said ESD 2 board president Alan Adams. He said Tuesday’s meeting was a good start.

Adams said prioritizing dollars by individual departments could add up to special projects, such as fire trucks and facilities, on a year-to-year rotation to ensure departments with significant needs address them sooner than later.

“I would like to see us shave more (than $800,000) off,” Adams said. “Then we might be able to come back and award some special projects to some other departments.”

Adams, a 23-year veteran volunteer firefighter and seven-year chief for Winona VFD, said the budget process isn’t that difficult, that the board “knows what each department needs and where they are” when it comes to facilities and equipment. He said the board must also consider new ESD funded projects, including changing to a digital radio system for around $200,000 and paying for dispatchers and 911 pages through the county for another $120,000.

The departments were asked to find savings where possible and to go over line items to find opportunities for the board and ESD 2 to participate in bulk purchases for possible cost reductions.

“We do not have the funds we had last year,” said ESD 2 board treasurer Teresa Campbell, after telling the department chiefs they needed to bring their amended budgets down.

Continued cuts and prioritizing are part of the process, Adams said.

Ms. Campbell said amending budgets by individual departments will continue through July. She said public meetings regarding the tax rate may not be necessary because the tax rate will not be above the effective or rollback rate and that she does not expect an increase in the tax rate. The district’s maximum rate allowed by state law is 10 cents.

Ms. Campbell said this is not the year to saddle taxpayers with an increase and the departments will work to ensure they are not.

“I don’t see an increase happening,” she said. “We are not telling the departments they can’t have things, we might not be able to get them this year.”

Brumley said he understands the process and what the board expects and why but at the same time ESD 2 is trying to reach a level of service that will hopefully reduce the district’s Insurance Service Office rating and insurance rates for homeowners within the five year goal initially set to sell the creation of emergency service districts to voters.
By Adam Russell, The Tyler Morning Telegraph