{"id":30613,"date":"2014-04-30T20:03:39","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T00:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=30613"},"modified":"2014-04-30T20:03:39","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T00:03:39","slug":"tax-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2014\/04\/tax-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Letter to the Editor,<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30614\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30614\" style=\"width: 140px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30614\" title=\"Chief Wayne\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Chief-Wayne.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"140\" height=\"234\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30614\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chief John R. Wayne Lehigh Acres Fire Dept<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In response to your inquiry, <a href=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/DOC043014-1.pdf\">attached is the resolution the Board<\/a> voted on last night that outlines the fee rates per category and the actual ballot language that will be presented at the polls in November.<\/p>\n<p>The vote was 4-1 in favor of the resolution and fee schedule.<\/p>\n<p>The estimated net revenue generated from the assessment would be approximately $13,442,604.00.\u00a0 The District needs approximately $15,000,000.00 per year to sustain the same level of coverage we provide today.\u00a0 The difference here will be accomplished through our ambulance transport fees that we budget at approximately $1,500,000.00 per year.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for your inquiry and we would appreciate any coverage you may be able to provide on this matter. \u00a0The main thing to remember is that this fee will be replacing the fire taxes already paid by the residents.\u00a0 It IS NOT in addition to what they are paying now.\u00a0 The amount they would pay in the future could be greater or less than what they are paying today.\u00a0 They will only be paying or saving the difference between the two (2) fees.\u00a0 Currently, the District WILL NOT be charging a property tax (ad valorem tax) on top of the assessment; this has been a point of confusion lately.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->As we discussed, if the District ends up laying off firefighters, shuts down response apparatus, and closes stations; the overall community fire protection rating (ISO rating) will increase.\u00a0 This will result in the residents&#8217; property insurance rates increasing&#8230;possibly at a rate higher than the assessment amount.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, the residents will be paying someone more revenue next year, either their insurance agent (for no additional services) or the Fire District to keep the level of service they enjoy now.\u00a0 The residents will be deciding at the polls in November what level of service they want to pay for in the future.\u00a0 Is $0.70 per day, $4.90 per week, or $21.25 per month too much to ask for to protect your family (rate based on a typical 1500 sq.ft. 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage home in Lehigh Acres)?<\/p>\n<p>The residents will have to decide.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>John R. Wayne, BPA, MAA, EMT-P<\/p>\n<p>Fire Chief Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District<\/p>\n<p>636 Thomas Sherwin Ave. S. Lehigh Acres, FL 33974<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Letter to the Editor, In response to your inquiry, attached is the resolution the Board voted on last night that outlines the fee rates per category and the actual ballot&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}