VENICE — Property owners who pay the county fire assessment should expect to see that item on their tax bill increase by 15% this year, but the additional revenue is needed to meet increasing demands on the Sarasota County Fire Department, Chief David Rathbun said.
People at a presentation at the Frances T. Bourne Jacaranda Public Library Thursday evening learned that the proposed fee increase would help fund new fire stations, including one at Jackson Road and East Venice Avenue; buy two new tanker trucks, doubling the current number serving “unhydrated” areas; and increase the personnel on an engine from two to three.
The fee is adjusted every five years based on a study by a consultant, Rathbun said. Because it’s a not an ad valorem assessment — one based on a property’s value — it doesn’t increase as a property appreciates. But that makes it financially stable because it doesn’t fluctuate, he said.
The fee is paid by residents of the city of Sarasota and of unincorporated Sarasota County except those within the Englewood Fire District, which extends into Charlotte County, and those served by the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department, Rathbun said.