Cedar Fort council weighs sales‑tax boost to stabilize emergency services, agrees to seed fire fund

Cedar Fort — Council members at a March 4 budget work session weighed a proposal to increase the town’s local sales tax and to earmark the revenue for emergency services, and agreed to a guaranteed, recurring transfer to shore up the volunteer fire department.

A council member proposing the change said a 0.5‑percentage‑point sales‑tax increase could produce roughly $85,000 a year for the town if implemented and earmarked for emergency services. "If you raised it and raised our sales tax half a percent, you could put $85,000 directly towards emergency services every year," the council member said, arguing the money could pay operating costs, equipment and incentives for volunteers.

Staff member Andrea briefed the council on current collections and constraints, noting that some impact‑fee and fire‑fund accounting remains constrained by how transfers have been recorded. Andrea said the town has received roughly $42,000 so far this year for road‑related revenues and explained how unused budgeted line items are moved into the capital projects fund. On fire funding she said the town’s previously budgeted $107,000 in fire impact fees had not been transferred monthly as planned and that the fire fund was about $9,000 short; she recommended making a transfer to cover current needs.

The council coalesced around two near‑term steps: earmarking a guaranteed annual transfer to the fire fund and having staff ask the county what the town must do to place a sales‑tax change on the local schedule. One council member said the council should initially "guarantee" $40,000 a year from existing town revenues to create a predictable base for equipment and operating needs, while using any new sales‑tax revenue to expand staffing, pay volunteers per call or support longer‑term needs such as upgrading to ALS capabilities.

Members debated how to present a possible sales‑tax increase to residents. Supporters said a targeted message — that the revenue would fund staffing and faster emergency response — would be easier to justify than a blunt property‑tax hike. "If we can tell them the half a percent of sales tax is going to actually have people staffing the station every day so that people will respond," a councilmember said, the transcript shows.

Staff committed to contact county officials to clarify rules and timelines for a local sales‑tax change and to return with revenue estimates and options for how the town would account for and track any new, earmarked stream.

What happens next: staff will provide detailed operating and revenue numbers ahead of the council’s public‑hearing process (the council noted the budget must be presented publicly in May and adopted in June). The council did not take a formal vote on changing the sales tax during the session; it approved routine adjournment at the end of the meeting.