{"id":7137,"date":"2024-04-16T15:04:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T18:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7137"},"modified":"2024-04-18T12:47:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T15:47:43","slug":"region-of-queens-avoids-tax-rate-hike-for-now-while-helping-fire-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/04\/16\/region-of-queens-avoids-tax-rate-hike-for-now-while-helping-fire-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Region of Queens avoids tax rate hike for now while helping fire services"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fire trucks at North Queens Fire Association headquarters. (Facebook)<\/p><\/div>\n

Region of Queens councillors and staff have found a way to help the county\u2019s fire departments with the increased costs of buying new equipment \u2014 and all without raising the tax rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors are currently in budget deliberations, so the final budget has not been approved. But they headed off a request for an increase to the tax rate to help fire departments pay for new trucks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fire chiefs and the region agreed to a new funding schedule in February to replace fire and rescue trucks. The region increased its contribution to $425,000 for pumpers, tankers and aerial trucks from $275,000. That kicks in for the 2026\/27 fiscal year.<\/span><\/p>\n

But as councillors heard on Tuesday, new trucks keep getting more expensive. And higher interest rates mean that borrowing costs for fire departments have skyrocketed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fire chiefs made a presentation to council on Tuesday asking for an increase of one cent to the region\u2019s overall tax rate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The residential property tax rate per $100 of assessment in districts 1 to 12 is at $1.07 and $1.92 in District 13.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris Wolfe, chief of the North Queens Fire Association, told council that interest rates for fire departments have risen to 8.2 per cent from 3.45 per cent in 2021. On a 10-year loan of $600,000, fire departments would have to pay $170,000 more over that period than they would have in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBasically the $275,000 that we get now for truck replacement would be just gobbled up in interest charges and wouldn\u2019t be going to the actual principal of buying the truck,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe interest for that 10-year term is what\u2019s making a big difference for us in the Queens County fire services in purchasing trucks. It\u2019s taken a drastic jump over the last three or four years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wolfe said the cost of trucks has also risen in the past three years. He said a truck builder in Lantz reported that the cost of a custom fire chassis has jumped by about $120,000 since May 2022. The truck builder told Wolfe that his overall supply costs have also gone up by three per cent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Three trucks are due to be replaced over the next two fiscal years, but at the region\u2019s lower contribution of $275,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wolfe said that a one-cent increase in the tax rate now would help the fire departments cope with the increased costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors appeared to be prepared to grant the chiefs\u2019 request.<\/span><\/p>\n

CAO Cody Joudry, however, suggested that staff might be able to find another way to grant the chiefs\u2019 request without adding to the tax rate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After a break, Joanne Veinotte, director of corporate services, said that councillors could do what they did last year to help maintain the tax rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

During last year\u2019s discussions, they budgeted $442,000 from the accumulated surplus to prevent a tax rate increase. Councillors are also eyeing an estimated $650,000 surplus from 2023\/24.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Veinotte said the region didn\u2019t actually need any of that $442,000 because they saved money on staffing and delayed capital projects. She suggested they could do the same thing this year, by pulling $126,772 from reserve funds for fire services to balance the tax rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire department has their increase of a penny but yet you still have your no increase in tax rate. And that is something I can literally do in two minutes. So if that’s what council feels comfortable with to get this budget done and put to bed, then I can certainly do that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Joudry clarified that if they record a surplus in 2024\/25, then the region likely wouldn\u2019t have to dip into the accumulated surplus to pay for the fire departments\u2019 increased truck costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors will get the final draft of the budget on Thursday. They hope to approve it at their council meeting on Tues., April 23 at 6 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/firechiefrateaskapr1624.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Region of Queens councillors and staff have found a way to help the county\u2019s fire departments with the increased costs of buying new equipment \u2014 and all without raising the tax rate. Councillors are currently in budget deliberations, so the final budget has not been approved. But they headed off a request for an increase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1245,2024,616,32,1427,2055,2059,1735,2056,2058,2057,49,2060,24,2061,2054],"class_list":["post-7137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-budget","tag-budget-meetings","tag-budget-surplus","tag-chris-wolfe","tag-cody-joudry","tag-fire-services","tag-fire-trucks","tag-joanne-veinotte","tag-kendall-farmer","tag-north-queens-fire-association","tag-port-medway-fire-department","tag-queens-county","tag-queens-county-fire-services","tag-region-of-queens","tag-reserve-funds","tag-tax-rates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7137"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7166,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7137\/revisions\/7166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}