IN Volunteer FFs May Face $16K Shortfall
By Howard Greninger
Source The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
June 20 -- Jeff VanLannen, fire chief of the Shepardsville Volunteer Fire Department, said he learned this week his department could face a shortfall of $16,000 over the next year.
In a review of the 2016-pay-2017 assessed values by the Vigo County Auditor’s Office, it was discovered that personal property for Wabash Valley Power Association was incorrectly listed in Fayette Township.
While the property is in Fayette Township, it is located within the Fayette/New Goshen Fire Protection District.
“A lot of [the utility assessed value] comes from the state. Between the business filing its personal property and the state, it should have been caught [as to what taxing unit it is assigned] and we should have caught it, but we finally did,” said Cheryl Loudermilk, Vigo County’s chief deputy auditor.
The reassignment has lowered the utility’s assessed value from more than $79.8 million to $48.7 million for Fayette Township.
The direct impact is a tax collection lost of $16,000, going from about $20,000 to $4,000 for Fayette Township, VanLannen said.
“Right now, the township would not have enough money” to cover its fire protection contract with the Shepardsville Volunteer Fire Department, which is about $20,000 annually, VanLannen said.
“I can’t pay the department insurance on $4,000. It is impossible,” he said.
Fayette Township Trustee Paul Allsup said he will meet with the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance in August to determine if the township can raise the property tax levy to meet a higher budget need.
“Hopefully this will be addressed with the DLGF,” Allsup said.
The Shepardsville Volunteer Fire Department is not part of the New Goshen Fire Protection District, formed in 1999/2000.
In 2012, the New Goshen Fire Protection District expanded, taking Sandford into the district. VanLannen said it is too early to determine if Shepardsville will need to become part of that fire protection district.
Another measure to address a funding shortfall is re-establishing a cumulative fire fund for the township in its 2019 budget. That fund, which generates about $12,000, had not been collected for three years, the fire chief said. Allsup said he has placed the cumulative fire fund in the township’s 2019 budget.
“It will be the latter part of 2019 before we would have to do anything drastic,” VanLannen said. “If we can get the state to change the way the money is levied, even if moved into 2020, we are okay. The department is stable, but it is an issue of having resources coming back into the department to maintain services,” VanLannen said.
___ (c)2018 The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.) Visit The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.) at tribstar.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.