Franklin Fire and Rescue is requesting Macon County raise its fire tax, although one county commissioner tried to steer the discussion into his grievances with the Franklin fire district and firefighting in general.
The Town of Franklin presented its case during the Macon County Board of Commissioners four-hour budget workshop on June 4. The town requested the fire tax rate increase from $0.0524 per $100 valuation to $0.07 per $100 valuation. The tax rate was 7 cents in 2022-23 but was adjusted to 5.24 cents in 2023-24 after revaluation as it was the revenue-neutral number. The county commissioners set the fire tax rate for all the fire departments in the county.
As it was a budget workshop, the commissioners took no action on the request. The next commissioners meeting to potentially approve the budget was to take place June 11.
Franklin Mayor Jack Horton said the increase would put the town in a position to fund two new fire trucks.
Franklin Town Council member Mike Lewis said he doesn’t like taxes and has voted against tax increases, but noted the town put down a $250,000 deposit for a new firetruck. Lewis said it’s unfair that the 4,000 people who live in Franklin’s town limits are the only ones subsidizing fire trucks for a fire district of 10,000 people, and he wants the fire tax increase.
Town Council member David Culpepper said he voted against the $250,000 deposit for the truck last year because it wasn’t fair, but said he trusts the fire chief and what they need.
“You can blame me for political cover,” Culpepper said to the commissioners.
Franklin Fire Chief Ben Ormond said Franklin has six times the emergencies of any other district and their cost-per-response is less than half the county’s average.
“We need to be proactive. We ordered a pumper, but we still need a tanker,” Ormond said, saying that fire truck costs are up, they need to hire a fourth full-time firefighter and are operating at capacity at the current station.
Commissioner John Shearl, a retired firefighter, asked Ormond several questions about the number of fire calls versus medical calls and the substation off NP&L Loop, if taxpayer money is used for their donation letters, and he felt they were trying to hit the taxpayers with tax increases.
Ormond said the commissioners could change the fire districts but believes shrinking Franklin’s district would be a detriment to those going into new districts. Ormond said the rural departments usually have one guy on a truck driving to a fire, which limits what they can do, while Franklin has three guys per truck who can start running hoses.
Shearl also had the idea of letting Franklin and Highlands’ fire departments become municipal-only, with their boundaries only going as far as town limits, so those town governments can make fire tax decisions. Ormond said this would be a “lose-lose” scenario, saying some rural departments are barely keeping their doors open.
“Anytime you put money into anything, it becomes a nightmare,” said Shearl. He said injecting tax money is an issue with firefighting in Macon County, that it “ruined” fire service in Macon County and said there’s friction in the Highlands Fire Department. Ormond replied that tax money saved fire service in Macon County.
Commissioner Danny Antoine asked why there is a lack of volunteer firefighters. Ormond replied that it’s hard to get people to work. Antoine said he’s against all tax increases but called this a tough decision.
“We brag on having the lowest tax rate in the state, but we can’t have more without money coming in,” Antoine said, noting as a volunteer chaplain he goes out on fire calls and sees what firefighters deal with.
Franklin Town Manager Amie Owens said the town can’t pass a budget until the county does and doesn’t want to advocate for this fire tax hike again. Owens said the tax hike would supply the town with an extra $397,000 a year.
Ormond said they have a 31-year-old fire truck. The recommended fire truck retirement age is 25. Higdon asked the town why the town bought a fire truck without having a plan to pay for it. Owens said there was a good deal they couldn’t pass up on.
Macon Emergency Services Director Warren Cabe complimented Franklin Fire’s work, and gave the idea of having two pots of money in their service district, one for in-town limits and one without, with the town and county controlling tax rates in their jurisdictions. Cabe also said they could set up service rates for three areas of the county – Highlands/Scaly Mountain, Nantahala and Franklin, and commissioners can send money to each district as they see fit.
Near the end of this lengthy discussion, Higdon said taxes upset him because there are taxes for seemingly everything nowadays.
Budget workshop reports and requests
South Macon music teacher Maggie Jenkins advocated for the commissioners to fund three teacher positions: music at South Macon, art at Iotla Valley and art at Macon Middle School. Federal COVID funding for those positions runs out at the end of June. Jenkins spoke of the positive benefits art and music bring the school kids, saying many go to school only for those classes.
Macon County Solid Waste Director Chris Stahl presented his request to raise the Solid Waste Availability Fee from $108 a year to $120 a year, or a $1 raise per month. Part of this will help give the convenience center employees a raise from $11.93 to $12.50 an hour, plus funding for equipment purchases.
Higdon said he supported that fee. Shearl, who fought Solid Waste fee increases last year, asked Stahl for a list of all past, present and future equipment Solid Waste has used and how many hours staff used each piece of equipment.
Higdon asked if Cowee School was self-sustaining, leading to Commissioner Josh Young floating the idea of selling the building and property to the community so they could apply for grants. Young said the Arts & Heritage Center can’t apply for grants for building upkeep since they lease it from the county.
Other items discussed, mostly brought up by Shearl, were possibly getting rid of the $75,000 Community Funding Pool, a proposed $200,000 Senior Center services assessment, maybe buying the old Macon Bank property on the hill behind Angel Medical Center as a possible option for Senior Center services and other government offices, the tax office’s upgraded imagery, the $171,000 budgeted for new Health and Human Services hires, possibly subcontracting out mowing and courthouse security.
Young and Shields said that Macon County Transit will discontinue the Appalachian Trail hiker shuttle next year from Winding Stair Gap to downtown Franklin. Two months ago, Three Eagles Outfitters owner Jackie Sroka complained that the shuttle was taking Appalachian Trail hikers downtown and near her competitor Outdoor 76 while ignoring their business on Georgia Road.
Near the end of the meeting, Shearl revisited his November 2023 spat with Roland which led to Shearl asking for Roland’s resignation. Shearl wanted Roland to admit that he said Macon County was “overstaffed.” Shearl ignored Shields’ attempts to quash the discussion and Roland said he didn’t want to get into this again, saying his budget gives the appropriate amount of staffing for the county. Higdon said he heard Roland say it as well. Soon after, Shields called for an adjournment.