Higher rates

Fire assessment fee set to rise

Residential property owners in Margate will pay $300 a year for firefighter services from next year after city officials approved a $75 increase in the annual fire assessment fee.

The fee for nursing homes and institutional properties will also go up, from $0.23 per square foot to $0.69 per square foot. The new fee for commercial is $0.30 per square foot.

Residents thronged city hall and spoke against the proposed increase, but officials voted 3-2 in favor of increasing the fee. The increase will result in a revenue of$ million, an increase of $2.2 million from what the city’s revenue when the fee was $225.

The city plans to use the additional money to build a new fire station, replacing Fire Station 58, and improve response times. The decision to increase the fee wasn’t unanimous, with commissioners Lesa Peerman and Joanne Simone voting against it. The fee was last increased six years ago.

“We are talking about increasing the fee 20 cents a day, six dollars a month,” said Commissioner Anthony Caggiano. “Ifwe increase the fee to $300, we are still deficit spending $1.617 million. What we are looking to do is decrease the city’s deficit spending by $1.38 million. We can only deficit spend so far. We are taking money out of the general fund to fund this, to pay down.”

Peerman wanted the city to keep the fire fee at$225 and put the plans for a new fire station on hold. “The city had two years to come up with the money for the fire station,” she said. “The past city manager had two years; I do not want us raising the fee.”

“Every year, we have been dipping into our reserves,” said Mayor Tommy Ruzzano. “There isn’t going to be much left. Margate provides great services. Who is going to pay for the services? Pulling from your reserves is not the answer. [Increasing the fire fee] is the fairest thing to do; every resident has to pay."

The increase is mainly due to the fact that 50 percent of the city’s 22,000 residential property owners do not pay more than $400 in ad valorem taxes to the city. Eight percent do not pay anything to the city byway of ad valorem tax, 15 percent pay less than $100, and 29 percent pay less than $200.