By Candice Williams
The Detroit News
HOWELL, Mich. — The Howell Area Fire Authority will ask voters this month to approve a tax renewal that will include an increase for its fire millage.
Officials are seeking on the Feb. 28 ballot to increase a 1.1 mill tax levy that ends in December to 1.5 mills, as well as extend it to December 2017.
The increase is needed because communities in the Howell Area Fire Department’s coverage areas have experienced drops in property tax assessments, said Bill Bamber, Oceola Township supervisor and chairman of fire authority board.
“We’ve done very well at controlling expenses, reducing expenses, but our revenue is going down faster than we can control and still get the same service,” Bamber said of the fire department.
The department’s revenue has dropped from $1.9 million in 2008 to $1.4 million in 2012, Bamber said. The department’s expenditures this year are $1.8 million.
The Howell Area Fire Department has full-time, part-time and a large majority of paid on-call firefighters. The department covers a 145-square-mile area that includes the city of Howell, as well as Cohoctah, Howell, Marion and Oceola townships. It operates five engines out of four stations.
The millage would pay for the fire authority’s equipment, facilities and improvements. If it passes, the millage would raise $2.1 million in the first year. The tax would cost the owner of a house with a taxable value of $75,000, $112.50 annually — an additional $30 than in previous years.
Howell resident Janet Shoemaker said she’s in favor of the millage.
“We’re stretching our resources much too tight,” she said. “The guys are having to work too hard. The big thing in this very conservative Republican county is that people believe taxes are evil. Taxes are the price of civilization.”
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