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Wilkes County approves modest fire tax-rate increases for four volunteer departments
Summary
The Wilkes County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved May 19 modest increases to the fire tax rates for four volunteer fire departments.
The Wilkes County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved separate motions May 19 to increase fire tax rates for four volunteer fire departments after staff summarized requests raised at public hearings.
Commissioner Hardin Kennedy moved, and Commissioner Evan Handy seconded, to set the Brushy Mountain Volunteer Fire Department rate to 0.06 per $100 valuation (6 cents). The motion passed unanimously.
Vice Chairman Bill Sexton moved, and Commissioner Casey Joe Johnson seconded, to set the Little Brushy Mountain Volunteer Fire Department rate to 0.10 per $100 valuation (10 cents). The motion passed unanimously.
Commissioner Hardin Kennedy moved, and Commissioner Evan Handy seconded, to set the Mulberry-Fairplains Fire & Rescue Department rate to 0.08 per $100 valuation (8 cents). The motion passed unanimously.
Vice Chairman Bill Sexton moved, and Commissioner Hardin Kennedy seconded, to set the Shepherd’s Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department rate to 0.0625 per $100 valuation (6.25 cents). The motion passed unanimously.
Board discussion included a note that the revenue-neutral rates for each district differ from the departments' requested increases; commissioners said they sought a middle ground for several small districts. Assistant Finance Director Zack Lovette provided an estimate that moving Little Brushy Mountain to 0.10 would raise approximately $20,000 more than the previous year for that district. Commissioner Evan Handy asked that, in future cycles, the board hold a dialogue with departments seeking increases before voting to give departments an opportunity to respond to board thinking.
Action summary: four separate motions were made and passed unanimously to adopt the rates listed above. The transcript contains inconsistent numeric formatting in some places (for example, numbers presented as 0.60 alongside parenthetical “6 cents”); this article reports the rates as normalized dollar-per-$100 valuations (0.06 = 6 cents) to reflect the board's stated cents-per-$100 intent.
