Tax increase possible in St. Charles Countryside Fire Protection District
Still dealing with voters' rejection of a bid to build a new firehouse in April 2009, the St. Charles Countryside Fire Protection District may ask voters for a tax increase in November.
District President Ed Malek said current projections indicate the rural district, which covers St. Charles, Campton and Wayne townships, will not be able to pay all its expenses as early as 2012. An advisory committee is studying exactly how much the budget gap is and will formulate a recommendation in the next 30 to 60 days about whether a tax increase is needed.
If the advisory committee decides an increase is needed, and district trustees agree, a formal vote to put a referendum on the November ballot must occur no later than Aug. 16.
Malek said the costs of receiving fire protection from the city of St. Charles is simply getting to be more than the district can afford.
"With the current contract with the city of St. Charles, as well as the expenses they, quite frankly, can't control with the contracts they have with the unions ... costs are just going up faster than the revenues in the district," Malek said.
Malek said trustees would still love to build the firehouse voters rejected last year, but that's a distant priority compared to the district actually surviving. Malek believes there's a chance the Illinois State Fire Marshall could step in, dissolve the district, and attach it to surrounding fire protection districts if insolvency occurs.
"I got to tell you there's no good time to go to the taxpayers for more money," Malek said. "But the alternative is not good. The tax rates of surrounding districts are three or four times higher than ours. So people need to be cognizant that if we are not able to function, and we need to dissolve, their taxes may go up (for fire protection) by 200 or 300 percent."
Malek expects the trustees will have some clear direction about the need for and the amount of any tax increase request by the end of April or May.