Fire district is asking too much

The Warrenville Fire District is asking for an additional tax of 0.1 percent. This is a 21 percent increase in the tax rate (2017 rate 0.4738 percent). This will make the fire protection district the second-highest tax rate and second highest dollar amount of tax dollars being collected on your real estate tax bill.

At the end of April 2019, the fire protection district is expecting to have over $1 million dollars in their operating fund, an increase over the April 2018 numbers. Why is a 21 percent increase in tax dollars needed when there is over $1 million sitting unused?

Twenty-one percent is an obscene amount to request for a tax increase. No hard numbers are given to justify any increase let alone 21 percent increase. One of the reasons offered was to reduce dependency on neighboring fire departments. How often has this happened?

This is precisely the reason cooperative agreements are made with other fire departments; to reduce the need to have excess personnel sitting around idle much of the time. Cooperative agreements are a cost containment strategy that benefits all parties in the agreement.

There are three large developments currently under way in Warrenville that will significantly increase the tax dollars being received by the fire protection district. What is the expected dollar increase these developments will provide and would those monies be sufficient to eliminate the need for a tax rate increase of any kind?

Vote no to the Warrenville Fire Protection District referendum question.

Gerald Gosewehr

Warrenville