Florida Self Storage Owner Fights Fire Service Tax

In many states, fire departments facing budget deficits are responding by charging fees to local area residents for fire service -- fees for equipment used, for the time served by firefighters fighting a fire (including overtime for night fires), etc. Some states, though, have banned the practice of fire departments charging fire victims for their services. Florida is one of those states. However, a few localities are getting around the ban a different way -- by assessing a new tax on businesses and homeowners. The tax is often called the fire service tax or fire service fee. Now a Florida self storage owner is leading the fight against fire service fees in the city of Brooksville.

Brooksville, like several other communities in Florida, recently held public hearings on the subject of whether or not to charge a fire service tax to property owners. At first, Brooksville city council members said they planned to lower property taxes proportionately to make up for the fire service fee. But over the summer three out of the five council members changed their minds. They were making plans to eliminate a proposed red light camera program that was expected to generate additional revenue for the city. Instead, they turned back to the fire service fee idea. They decided that the fee would be needed to supply about $649,479, or 40.5 percent of the fire department’s budget (which totals $1.6 million).

Local business owners were quick to criticize the new tax. Kurt Prystupa, the owner of Sun Fiberglass Products, told Hernando Today on Aug. 27 that he already pays $5,100 in taxes for his business, and now he will owe an additional $7,100. “That’s an additional $19 a day and for what? That’s taking away money that I could be putting toward paying my business,” he said. “To me it’s a very slippery slope for a government body to be able to do this because once they crack the door open, they’re gonna blow it open.”

Business owners, like Prystupa, expect to pay an additional .0475 cents per square foot of property, while homeowners will pay a flat fire fee of $76.26, no matter how large or small their property is.

A fee that affects business owners based on the square footage of their business is bound to have a disproportionate affect on self storage owners, who because of the nature of their business, have properties that include large amounts of square footage. The average self storage facility in the United States has about 46,200 square feet of rentable space, not counting office space. At the fire service tax rate that city council members contemplate imposing in Brooksville, that would amount to $2,194.50.

Hotel owners and owners of large manufacturing plants or any other industrially-zoned property would also be hit hard by such a tax.

Diane Bernick, who owns Broad and Wiscon Self Storage in Brooksville, has gathered together a group of local business owners to pool their resources and hire an attorney. They plan to take legal action to persuade the members of Brooksville’s City Council to pass on the initiative to force homeowners and business owners to pay for local emergency services with an additional fee on top of the property taxes that they already pay. She is also planning to organize local business leaders and homeowners to appear and speak at the upcoming Sept. 8 public hearing about the budget.

Bernick’s additional tax under the fire fee increase would add up to $7,472, bringing her total property tax to $16,389 -- an 117.8 percent increase over last year’s taxes. She pointed out that some business owners may have to close their doors or lay off employees in order to pay the increase in tax.

“No one person can fight City Hall,” Bernick told Hernando Today on Wednesday. “But the more people that show up at the meeting, the more likely that the council will realize this is a serious situation.”

Sources used:

Bell, Kay. “Drivers, look out for crash taxes.” Bankrate.com. Sept. 1, 2010.

Broad and Wiscon Self Storage.

Netter, Sarah. “Fire departments charge for service, asking accident victims to pay up.” ABC News. Feb. 4, 2010.

Schmucker, Jeff. “Business owners to challenge fire fees.” Hernando Today. Sept. 1, 2010.

Schmucker, Jeff. “City backs off lowering the tax rate, adds fire fees.” Hernando Today. Aug. 27, 2010.

Self Storage Association. “Self Storage Association Fact Sheet 2010.”