Sarasota County fire department seeks fee increase

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.

But the county jointly responds to fires with those agencies and city departments, he said.

In fact, the county department doesn’t have a ladder truck in South County, so when one is needed, it relies on either Venice Fire or North Port Fire, he said. The plan is to have a ladder truck at the Jackson Road station when it’s built, he added.

By the numbersIf approved by the County Commission in September, the 15% increase will raise the rate for a single-family home to $10.35, a multi-family residence to $18.76 and a nonresidential property to $26.15 per “equivalent billing unit.” Each 100 square feet constitutes an EBU.

The minimum size property subject to the assessment is being reduced to 750 square feet, based on a small shift toward more calls from residential properties, according to the county website.

Property owners can estimate their new assessment by dividing the size of their residence or other property by 100, then multiplying it by the new rate.

The assessment paid by the owner of a 2,500-square-foot house, for example, would be $258.75, an increase of $33.75 a year, Rathbun said.

The combined budget for the county’s fire and emergency medical services proposed for Fiscal Year 2024-25 is $135 million, he said.