In a surprise move, the St. Johns County commissioners decided Tuesday to stop a plan that would have charged homeowners a fee for fire services.
Four of the five commissioners had voted in favor of the fee in June, but changed their minds after receiving a lot of negative feedback from the public.
Currently, homeowners pay for fire services through their property taxes, but that’s not enough to fund infrastructure needs, such as new fire trucks and fire station buildings, so the commissioners were looking into charging a fee based on the size of the residents’ homes rather than their property values.
Because property taxes vary based on if and when homeowners have applied the 3 percent Save Our Homes cap on their property taxes, some of the commissioners said there’s an inequity between the amount homeowners pay for fire services.
For example, if someone bought their 2,000-square-foot home 30 years ago and got a Save Our Homes cap, they pay less in property taxes than someone who bought their 2,000-square-foot home two years ago.
The fire services fee, on the other hand, would be charged based on the size of the home and its fire hazard rating. So property owners with 2,000-square-foot homes would pay the same amount, regardless of when they purchased them and if they have the tax cap. However, because of the fire hazard rating criteria, commercial property owners would pay more than residential property owners.
Beth Breeding, a commercial property owner in Ponte Vedra Beach, said the proposed fire services fee for her properties were 50 percent higher than what she paid for all services in her property taxes in prior years.
“I understand that it costs money for these things. ... When it’s a 50 percent increase over the entire tax bill for all services for the prior year, it’s something we just can’t absorb,” she said.