Increase in fire millage rate is possible for Hall Co.

GAINESVILLE - Hall County Commissioner Scott Gibbs said Wednesday he sees no way around rolling up taxes or increasing the millage rate for the county's fire fund in the upcoming budget.

The increase, he said, is needed to staff a new fire station on Mt. Vernon Road in the north Hall area.

"By adding this new station, we have to add 15 new people, and unfortunately, we're going to have to look at either a roll-up to the fire fund or a slight millage rate increase to add those 15 new people to staff that station."

Gibbs said the new station is being built to fill a gap created when a station on Highway 129 had to be moved further north. When that happened, the insurance rates for about 500 homes in the district quadrupled because of the distance of those homes from fire services.

The discussion about the fire fund came up at a Tuesday night meeting hosted by Gibbs at the North Hall Community Center on Nopone Road.

He said the 30 people in attendance did not object to the increase.

"Fire [protection] is something that affects everybody's life because they see those fire engines, they know they're getting something they can look at and know they're there in an emergency," said Gibbs.

"I did not have one person say a negative thing about the increase."

Gibbs said the current calculations show the owner of a $200,000 home would sustain an additional $60 annual tax burden, although he pointed out with the tax digest decreasing and property values continuing to trend lower, the amount is likely to be less in many cases.

Hall County commissioners will hold a budget hearing Thursday, June 13 at 6 p.m. during the commission's regular meeting.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/6/262473