Gary McDaniel
GREENFIELD — By a unanimous vote, officials with the Greenfield City Council passed a fire territory tax hike last week.
The final vote to raise a tax rate on properties in and surrounding Greenfield for services the city’s fire territory provides was greatly needed, city officials say. The change will increase the fire protection territory’s maximum tax levy from nearly $3.37 million to over $4.8 million starting in June 2023. The territory consists of Center Township in Hancock County.
The Greenfield City Council voted 7-0 in favor of an ordinance increasing the tax rate for the Greenfield Fire Protection Territory from $0.2317 per $100 of assessed property valuation to $0.3317, Wednesday, July 27. Council members Kerry Grass, Jeff Lowder, Gary McDaniel, Mitch Pendlum, George Plisinski, Dan Riley and John Jester all voted in favor of the measure.
While no one wants to see tax rates increase, McDaniel said they had no choice but to raise the rate as they continue to try and provide the types of services the citizens of the Greenfield area need.
“Everything is costing twice as much as it used to,” McDaniel said.
While city officials have increased the pay of GFT firefighters to keep from losing personnel after being trained, McDaniel said it’s important to continue to protect the city’s personnel. If that means hiring more people so crews are not spread too thin and services are not farmed out, then getting more funding from a tax rate hike had to happen.
“Unfortunately, a tax rate increase is a necessary evil,” McDaniel said.
He noted the city must bring in more firefighters because the area is rapidly growing.
“Just look at the housing alone and you can tell we’re growing and it takes more personnel and better pay to provide the services we need,” McDaniel said.
The increase is made possible by an Indiana House bill signed into law allowing fire protection territories experiencing more than 6% population growth during a 10-year period to increase its maximum property tax levy by an amount based on the population growth exceeding 6%. Indiana Rep. Bob Cherry, R-Greenfield, co-authored the bill.
Greenfield Fire Territory chief Brian Lott said he was pleased to hear of the final passage and credited the House Bill, saying it provided the GFT its only chance to grow. Lott said they now plan to submit a request to the Department of Government Labor of Finance to approve the rate increase.
The plan is to use the money to hire personnel to operate a third ambulance service in the area. They’ve already ordered the new ambulance and are awaiting its arrival.
“In 2021 we had 277 times where an outside ambulance came in and transported Greenfield residents, which is way too much,” Lott said.
The plan is to hire new ambulance personnel July 1, 2023.
Lott noted what the area really needs is a new fire department, but he knows there isn’t enough money to do that right now, so adding more crew members is the next best thing. The new ambulance personnel would then move to a third fire station, if and when it is ever built.
“What we really want is to get enough money to build a new station, hire more people and get a fire truck out there as well,” Lott said.
Grass too noted the rate increase was needed for Greenfield and Center Township, which is why he supported the measure.
“With the growth in the city and the current manpower at the fire territory, the need is going to continue to grow,” Grass said. “This is a good step to provide more safety for the firefighters as well as citizens.”
The GFT, Grass said, currently has a mutual aid agreement where departments outside of the city come in and take the runs they cannot and therefore collect the revenue off the runs. Grass said if they’re able to capture that revenue off the runs thanks to being able to add another ambulance, the city and township will collect those funds and benefit.
“We’ll also be able to decrease the response times for citizens,” Grass said.
