Fla. Town`s EMS, Fire Service Taxes Go Up 10 Percent

Sept. 12--With the final budget expected to be approved Monday, Key Largo taxpayers can expect to pay about 10 percent more than they did this year for fire and emergency medical services.

But even with the increase, residents on the island still pay about a third less for first responder protection than property owners do in the rest of unincorporated Monroe County.

The five-member Key Largo Fire-Rescue and Emergency Medical Services District board of commissioners approved a tentative property tax rate Monday of about 90 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property value. The law that created the special taxing district in 2005 caps the tax rate at $1 per $1,000.

The district will bring in about $2 million in property tax revenue. The Fire Department's budget is about $1.4 million. The Ambulance Corps's is $613,245.

The district's capital budget of $321,817 is more than $700,000 less than this fiscal year because of the purchase of three new trucks.

More than $958,629 was put aside in the 2013 budget for truck purchases. The district budgeted $230,617 for next year for the balance on two of the three vehicles.

This coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, a taxpayer who owns a home assessed at $300,000 will pay about $270 in fire and ambulance taxes. The current tax rate is about 79 cents.

Property values have increased slightly in the Key Largo, meaning the district could get away with a tax rate of about 77 cents to bring in the same amount of revenue as this fiscal year -- the so-called rollback rate.

Commissioners are scheduled to adopt the final tax rate at their meeting Monday at 6 p.m. at the fire station at mile marker 100.

Copyright 2013 - The Reporter (Tavernier, Fla.)