Except for a few that are among the highest
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| Charlestown Fire District tax among the lowest in Rhode Island |
By Will Collette
GoLocalProv
recently published a comparison of fire district taxes around the
state, largely for those areas that do not have professional, municipal fire
departments whose costs are factored into property taxes. See their chart at the end of this article.
In our area, most
areas are served by the 43 quasi-public fire districts that have the authority
to levy their own property-based taxes to fund themselves.
By contrast to Dunn’s Corner/Charlestown is the state’s most expensive
fire district, Coventry, where the District tax is $2.80 per $1000, a tax rate
seven times higher. Coventry’s high rate is largely due to extraordinary
financial mismanagement that threw the District into
near-bankruptcy, causing suspended paychecks for its professional firefighters.
The district stayed liquid by drastically jacking up the tax rate.
According to the RI Public Expenditure Council, the rate differences
arise from factors such as the staffing mix (i.e., how many firefighters are
volunteer versus how many are professional), the wealth of the community (i.e.,
the tax base) and the range of services. I’m not sure why there is an eight-cent
difference between Dunn’s Corner’s rate for Charlestown compared to Westerly.
Probably the tax base.
The wide range of Fire District tax rates just within our area is hard to
understand. The Charlestown Fire District rate of 57 cents per $1000 is pretty
close to Dunn’s Corner’s rate. But then there’s Shady Harbor, which at $2.23
per $1000 is fifth highest in the state. The neighboring Shelter Harbor Fire
District is high at $1.04 per $1000, but less than half that of Shady Harbor.
Similarly, the Quonochontaug Central Fire District charges 98 cents per $1000.
In addition to Dunn’s Corner and Shelter Harbor, Westerly has five other fire
districts, each with its own tax rate: Bradford (72 cents), Misquamicut (70
cents), Westerly (55 cents), Weekapaug (50 cents) and Watch Hill (40 cents).
Conservative groups such as RIPEC, as well as the RI Statewide Coalition,
question the logic of having so many separate fire districts. They argue that
consolidating fire districts would save money and cut costs.
That’s not surprising, since RISC’s (and CCA’s) founders and leaders are
concentrated in the Shady Harbor, Shelter Harbor and Quonochontaug Fire
Districts.
GoLocalProv asks “Does Lincoln need five fire chiefs?” The question could
also be asked, “Does Westerly need seven fire chiefs?”
Mike Napolitano of the Albion (Cumberland) Fire District says, “In a town
with six fire districts, if you were to consolidate, you wouldn’t need six fire
chiefs. You wouldn’t need six tax collectors. You wouldn’t need six clerks.”
While the idea of consolidation for cost efficiency sounds great in
theory, it is difficult to achieve if the composition of the firefighters
differs within the districts negotiating a merger. Past efforts to try to
consolidate districts teach that it’s hard if one district is all volunteer and
another is all professional, especially if they are unionized, and another
district has a mixed force.
Albion Fire District’s Napolitano concedes that the idea of merging
districts goes nowhere without the support of the firefighters.
Residents may also find themselves torn between saving tax dollars versus
potential reduced coverage arising from a merger. Would Shady Harbor, Shelter
Harbor and Quonochontaug residents be willing to see fewer stations along with
fewer districts so they can save on their property taxes?
From GoLocalProv.com:
