Gainesville City Commission signals increase in fire assessment fee in response to “big monster in the closet” of increased property tax exemptions

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At a May 28 special meeting, Gainesville City Commissioners signaled that they may raise the fire assessment fee significantly in response to a proposal to increase the property tax exemption on homesteaded residential properties.

Interim City Manager Andrew Persons introduced the fire assessment fee item by saying he recommended increasing the rate for FY27 because once the preliminary rate is set on June 18, the Commission can adjust the rate downward, but they can’t raise it.

Gainesville Fire Rescue (GFR) Chief Shawn Hillhouse described the increased rate as a “worst-case scenario” and reminded Commissioners that the fee pays for some percentage of the fire services assessed cost, the portion of GFR’s budget that covers fire. The FY26 budget set the fee at a rate that would cover 53% of that cost, and Persons recommended increasing it to 70%. The fee has traditionally been set around 50%, but the Commission started increasing it gradually over the past few years.

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he believed the fee would be “coming down quite a bit” from the 70% number, so he was comfortable with raising it for now.

Commissioner Casey Willits: “There’s probably no better way of informing the public about how a City would replace millions and millions and millions of property tax dollars because of this proposal than to show them what collecting 60%, 70%, 75% on fire assessment is.”

Commissioner Casey Willits said that with a constitutional amendment pending that would greatly increase the property tax exemption for homesteaded residences, “there’s probably no better way of informing the public about how a City would replace millions and millions and millions of property tax dollars because of this proposal than to show them what collecting 60%, 70%, 75% on fire assessment is… This is one of those mechanisms that cities and counties are gonna be looking at.”

Commissioner James Ingle: “If there are going to have to be increases in revenue, fire service seems like the easiest lift of them.”

Commissioner James Ingle agreed that they should increase the fee: “We’ve got a fairly large budget gap here. I’m not sure what levers we’re going to have to pull to be able to fill that gap in, but it seems unwise to me to take one of them off the table right now… I think we should give ourselves every tool that we can possibly use, moving forward, until we figure out what adjustments we are going to have to make… If there are going to have to be increases in revenue, fire service seems like the easiest lift of them.”

Mayor Harvey Ward clarified, “Every dollar that we charge from that goes to pay for fire services — not Gainesville Fire Rescue in general,… but fire services specifically.”

Persons said the fee “adds a direct benefit to the properties that we assess.”

Ward said he agreed with Ingle that “we need to give ourselves opportunity to directly fund fire services at the highest possible degree we are willing to do, so we don’t… box ourselves into a much lower figure than we could have done in the first place. I’m much more comfortable up in the 65-70% potential area, just leaving ourselves open to… hopefully lower it, but if things really go bad, then we know that we can fund most of fire services.”

Mayor Harvey Ward: “To be clear, if there were not the threat of, you know, this big monster in the closet, from what the legislature might do, I wouldn’t be in favor of changing from 53[%].”

Ward continued, “To be clear, if there were not the threat of, you know, this big monster in the closet, from what the legislature might do, I wouldn’t be in favor of changing from 53[%]… But we do have that monster in the closet, so we need to be prepared to approach that conservatively.”

Increasing the fee to 70% would bring in an additional $4.1 million of revenue

Executive Chief of Staff Cintya Ramos said that bumping the fee from 53% to 70% would bring in an additional $4.1 million of revenue; setting it to 85% would bring in an additional $7.8 million.

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut: “We’re going to need a very, very clear message out to the public… This is going to have a serious impact on people.”

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said, “We’re going to need a very, very clear message out to the public,… probably every day going forward, explaining exactly what this means… This is going to have a serious impact on people, but they need to understand and be able to see exactly what it means, with some examples.”

Motion

There was no public comment on the item, and Ingle made a motion to set the fire assessment fee at 70% and bring back a resolution at the June 18 meeting to set the maximum rate at that level. Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker seconded the motion.

Willits said he thought it was “smart to go at that bigger number,… just so we don’t box ourselves in, but also as an educational tool so people understand more [about] the levers, should we lose a lot of [property] tax revenue.” He noted that he has opposed the methodology for setting the fee ever since it was implemented, so he might not vote for the actual resolution, but he supported raising the fee.

Commissioner Willits: “If people think that going to a pool is too expensive right now, be prepared. People think golf is too expensive at Ironwood. Be prepared. That’s how you fill in a budget gap of that proportion, I think, as opposed to just firing everyone who does their services.”

Willits said that if property taxes are reduced, “lots of governments are going to be talking about things like fire assessment, business tax, charging people to go to parks — if people think that going to a pool is too expensive right now, be prepared. People think golf is too expensive at Ironwood. Be prepared. That’s how you fill in a budget gap of that proportion, I think, as opposed to just firing everyone who does their services.”

Commissioner Ed Book said, “We need to do some extreme fiscal restraint across our divisions, so that we’re not attempting to pass on the cost.” Noting that the fee would impact people the City has been trying to help with affordable housing, he said some “levers have just as many disadvantages as they do advantages.”